Pro Kabaddi: Jaipur Pink Panthers outplay Bengaluru Bulls to register first win of season

Jaipur: Riding on a fine display by Jasvir Singh and Kuldeep Singh, defending champions Jaipur Pink Panthers beat Bengaluru Bulls by 13 points to notch up their first victory in five outings and keep their hopes alive in the Pro Kabaddi League at Sawai Man Singh Indoor Stadium here. The hosts put up a spirited show and Jasvir, with all his experience, excelled in raids as well tackles. He was ably assisted by Kuldeep as Pink Panthers beat Bengaluru Bulls 36-23. [caption id=“attachment_2369080” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Manjeet Chhillar (Bengaluru Bulls) grabbed by the Jaipur Pink Panthers defence. Image: Pro Kabaddi[/caption] The victory has propelled Pink Panthers to fifth position with eight points from five matches while Bengaluru, despite this defeat today, are at third spot with 20 points from six matches. Pink Panthers looked fizzled out after initial burst and Bengaluru opened up a lead of 15-10 after forcing an all out. Kuldeep then produced a super raid to bag three points to narrow the gap at 14-15. This proved to be the turning point of the match as Jasvir helped the hosts to earn an all out to put his team in 19-15 lead at the breather. The second half too saw Pink Panthers dominating the proceedings. They led 29-20 and soon enforced second all out in the match to take 32-21 to demoralize Bengaluru Bulls. Jasvir bagged nine points out which five came from raids and three from tackles. Kuldeep had a kitty of seven points while Rohit Rana and Ransingh contributed five and four points respectively. For Bengaluru Bulls, Manjeet Chillar top-scored with four points. Dharmraj Cherlathan, Rajesh Mondal and Joginder Narwal scored three points each but that was not enough to thwart Jaipur Pink Panthers who had entered the match in a do-or-die situation. Man of the match and star raider Jasvir Singh was full of praise for Jaipur’s captain Navneeth. “This win is all because of our captain Navneet Gautam. It doesn’t matter that he wasn’t able to play the full match today because he was there with us, supporting and cheering us from the bench throughout the match." “A captain doesn’t have to be on court to win. He needs to be able to support and guide his team from wherever he is and today Navneet was the perfect example for that. All the strategies that we used today to win were his idea and I can say with confidence that he is the best captain a team can have. He is also the best captain across all 8 teams,” said Jasvir. With PTI inputs