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The Jaipur Pink Panthers ended their home leg on a thrilling note as the Deepak Hooda-led side battled tooth and nail to finish with a 40-40 tie against Dabang Delhi K.C at the Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex in Panchkula, Haryana.
With the tie against Delhi, Jaipur finished their six home games with two wins, two losses, and two tied encounters, adding more spice to the exciting six days of thrilling action.
The Panthers kicked off their home leg with a dominating 36-23 win over the Puneri Paltan and with a must-win situation, faced off against U Mumba in their next match. A power-packed performance from Siddharth Desai overshadowed Deepak Hooda's Super-10 but in the end, a 35-35 tie saw the Panthers pulling out of the race to book a spot in the playoffs.
The Panthers faced off against the Gujarat Fortunegiants in two games with one game against the Haryana Steelers sandwiched between the games against Gujarat. Following Jaipur's 29-34 loss against Gujarat in the first of two games, the hosts came back strong against Haryana to register a 39-30 win but yet again came short against Gujarat as the table toppers from Zone 'A' clinched a thrilling 33-31 win.
With Delhi fielding a young side for the Panthers' final home game, the hosts were expected to exhibit a strong fight but in the end, the game came down to the final minute as the honors were shared on the day with the home team ending their leg with a mixed bag of results.
While Deepak Hooda led the way with some stellar performances, the likes of Desai, Narwal and Sehrawat had some top shows as well. Here are five raiders who shone in the Panchkula leg.
#5 Rohit Kumar - Bengaluru Bulls
The Bengaluru skipper had a top outing in both the Bulls' games as his mature raiding came to the fore which piled pressure on the opposition defense. In the Bulls' first game against the Telugu Titans, Rohit picked up just the six raid points but his experience took over as he knocked the time off the clock in order to ensure the Bulls had a massive 44-28 win in the end.
The Patna Pirates came next and in a battle that was set to ensue between Pardeep Narwal and Pawan Sehrawat, Rohit Kumar was the man in focus for Bengaluru as he notched up his 5th Super-10 of the season.
In the final ten minutes, with less than three men on the mat, Rohit mixed pace with maturity as he collected a bonus plus touch point on numerous occasions and kept Bengaluru in the hunt for a win. On one occasion, as the lone man on the mat, he even picked up a super raid, which ensured that Bengaluru did not face much of a deficit in the end.
Rohit finished with 21 points from two games, from 40 raids in all.
#4 Pawan Sehrawat - Bengaluru Bulls
The youngster has emerged as the pick of the season for the Bengaluru Bulls and continued his rich vein of form with a 'Super-10' against the Telugu Titans before picking up eight raid points against the Patna Pirates in a thrilling 40-40 tie.
Sehrawat came into the Panchkula leg with form on his side, as he had amassed 13 raid points against the same opposition, during the Titans' home leg. With familiar foes on his opposite end, the onus was on Sehrawat to yet again strike it big, which is exactly what transpired.
Such was his dominance that the two corners Vishal and Abozar Mighani combined to pick up just 2 tackle points, while Sehrawat improved on his performance to pick up 13 raid points from 16 raids.
Against the defending champions Patna in the next game, Sehrawat started slowly but soon picked up the pace as he supported Rohit Kumar with eight crucial raid points.
In the end, he finished with 21 raid points from two games that took his overall tally to 211 raid points from 20 matches.
#3 Prashant Kumar Rai - UP Yoddha
UP Yoddha's dismal season in the ongoing edition of the league has been marked by the inefficiency of the team to stitch individual performances, that has led to many a loss in the league stages.
Yet, one man, who has stood tall above the rest is Prashant Kumar Rai, the lanky raider from Karnataka, who has been UP's knight in shining armor, at least in the raiding department. While the defensive unit has been led by Nitesh Kumar and Sachin Kumar, Rai's contributions from the raiding front have given them a four-game unbeaten run from their last few encounters.
In a low-scoring encounter against the Tamil Thalaivas, Prashant Rai picked up a 'Super-10' with 12 points and scored close to half of his team's score of 25 and followed it up with yet another 'Super-10' as he knocked the winds out of Patna's sail with quick bonus points and precise touch points.
In two games, Prashant Rai finished with 22 points from two games.
#2 Rahul Chaudhari - Telugu Titans
The 'Poster Boy' of Indian kabaddi has not been in the brightest of form this season but with 158 raid points from 20 matches, Chaudhari has taken the top spot in the list of the best raiders from the Telugu Titans this season.
In the Panchkula leg, the Titans squared off against their rivals from the south in the form of the Bengaluru Bulls and with the raid machine wreaking havoc against the Bulls in Vizag with 13 raid points, Chaudhari was the man in focus.
The ace raider did not disappoint, putting the Bulls defenders to test as he time and again lured tackles from the corner defenders and in the process also collected yet another 'Super-10', as he finished the game with 13 raid points to his credit.
Although the Titans lost the game by a huge 16-point margin, Chaudhari's 'Super-10' emerged as the brightest spark in the whole game for the Titans.
#1 Siddharth Desai - U Mumba
Siddharth Desai's memorable debut season continued with yet another sparkling performance as the towering raider made a fabulous turnaround in the second half of the game against the Jaipur Pink Panthers which ensured that the hosts did not run away with the contest.
At half-time, U Mumba led by just the two points with Desai failing to find some form early in the game. However, he bounced back to his roaring form and piled some continuous pressure on the Jaipur defenders that proved vital for the season two champions to sniff out an important lead in the game.
However, the game ended in a nail-biting 35-35 game with Siddharth Desai top-scoring with 14 raid points from a total of 19 raids, which also saw his overall points tally climb to 211 raid points from 19 games at an average of 11.1 points per game.
Yet, it was Desai's 14-point effort that proved to be decisive in the end.
