Jaipur Pink Panthers presented another account of why they are a serious contender of Star Sports Pro Kabaddi Season 4 when they won a hard fought contest against home team Bengaluru Bulls. The first half of both the halves belonged to the Bengaluru Bulls, but Panthers won the crucial moments of the game to win the match by a margin of two points. Captain Jasvir Singh and Amit Hooda were the key architects of the win for the Panthers
All-rounder Rajesh Narwal was at it again when he helped Panthers open the account with a toe touch on Mohit Chhillar. But it was a super raid by Deepak Kumar Dahiya that set the ball rolling for the Bulls when he managed to find a gap between the defence and reduced the Panthers to two men within first seven minutes of the game.
Down to two men, Panthers leapt back into the competition when Rann Singh combined with Amit Hooda to foil a raid attempt by Rohit Kumar with the first super tackle of the day.
Jaipur recovered impressively from just two men on the mat to regain full strength as well as the lead and they had the young and lanky Ajay Kumar to thank for it whose raid took out the pillars of Bulls’ defence – Mohit Chhillar and Surender Nada.
From there on, the Panthers seized the momentum as first Jasvir Singh got raid points for the team and then Amit Hooda pushed Rohit Kumar out of the court to inflict the first all out of the match. Suddenly, the Bulls were under the pump and the Panthers were roaring. As the half time beckoned, the Jaipur Pink Panthers had secured a six-point lead.
The Bulls defence had once again failed them in the first half as they had just one tackle point in comparison to the Panthers’ five. Abhishek Bachchan’s men, who have developed a penchant for throwing up new impressive youngsters, had Amit Hooda firing for them in the defence.
Half Time – Bengaluru Bulls – 9 Jaipur Pink Panthers 15
In the first minute after the break, Rohit Kumar took out the two Narwals – Rajesh and Mahipal to dent the lead for the Panthers. Surender Nada then joined the action when his ankle hold got rid of raider Ajay Kumar for the first of the three times in the day. Not only the Bulls had managed to reduce the lead to three but they also reduced the Panthers to three men as well.
In the 24th minute, Ashish Sangwan, who has been a revelation for the Bulls this season in the defence, showed what he is capable of while raiding as he got two points for his team and more importantly reduced the lead to a single point. The impending All Out was inflicted the next minute that put the Bulls in lead.
Suddenly, as it happens so often in this game, the momentum had shifted and Bengaluru Bulls were on top of the Panthers. Rajesh Narwal helped the team equalize and directly called for a time out.
The tensions were rising and you could see them reach the breaking point on Abhishek Bachchan’s face. Every lead that Jaipur took, the Bulls from Bengaluru nullified it. For the next five minutes, there was nothing that separated the two team and when the Bulls took their technical timeout with three minutes left on the clock the scores were locked at 21-21.
Rajesh Narwal again put the Panthers in the lead with a bonus point and the Bulls found it difficult to recover from that blow as they couldn’t add any more point to their tally while the Panther added 3 more.
The Bulls then made a tactical error that would cost them the match. With not more than a minute to go in the match, Pawan Sehrawat came in to take the final raid for Bulls when Panthers had a two-point lead. Rohit Kumar, who had made an empty raid just before that, was surprisingly not entrusted with the raid that could have turned the match on its head.
Pawan’s failed raid attempt meant Bulls had conceded the match and Jasvir Singh, taking the final raid of the match, just completed the formalities for the Jaipur Pink Panthers to give them their third win on the bounce. The captain also won the award for Best Raider of the match.
Full Time – Bengaluru Bulls –22 Jaipur Pink Panthers 24
