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14th August,2014, Pune: After a heartening 10-point victory over the Bengal Warriors, the Puneri Paltan entered their home turf to a roaring round of applause. Their opponents – none other than the hard charging Jaipur Pink Panthers. It was the resilience of the Pune boys against the determination of the Men in Pink.
After a rousing welcome from the Pune crowd, the match got underway and lived up to its expectation from the word ‘go’. While the absence of the Jaipur skipper Navneet Gautam did not reflect on his team’s performance at all, Pune completely fell apart as soon as the injured Wazir Singh left the field of play. A one-sided affair throughout, the final score read 23-50 in favour of the Panthers.
Jaipur’s Maninder Singh started the game off with his characteristic speed, scoring a touch in a matter of seconds. This was countered soon after by a magnificent tackle by the Puneri Paltan and a 2 point raid by their hot blooded captain. But as the match gained momentum, Jaipur emerged as an offensive powerhouse, doubling Pune’s raid points with a score of 10-18 on the 15th minute.
The onslaught took its toll, eventually reducing the Pune defence to the skipper. Wazir’s one point valiant raid was successful, but ultimately crippling, as a hip injury brought him off the mat on a stretcher. Without their captain, the Puneri Paltan could not prevent an all-out, and halftime marked the scores at 15-29.
The second half was, unfortunately for the home crowd, very much the same. A humiliating first 10 minutes had some Pune fans walking out of the stadium under a scoreboard of 16-42. Those that did missed out on a small improvement in Pune’s performance, as the Paltan kept the Jaipur Pink Panthers from ever having more than 4 players on the mat.
Simon Kibura, Puneri’s little used player from Nigeria, was also finally able to exhibit his grit on the battlefield, scoring two effective raids in a row. But when the whistles blew for the end of the game, they marked the most complete and utter defeat in the Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League to date, with a final score of Puneri Paltan 23, Jaipur Pink Panthers 50.
