Pro Kabaddi League 2018: Puneri Paltan return to winning ways with hard-fought victory over Dabang Delhi

Patna: Puneri Paltan defeated Dabang Delhi 31-26 to register their sixth win in the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) Season 6 in Patna on Wednesday. Sandeep Narwal and Rinku Narwal caused the trouble for Delhi’s raiders who continuously made errors like stepping in the lobby or being timed out. Naveen Kumar was the highest scoring raider for Delhi with 6 raid points while Joginder Narwal tried his best to help his team win with 4 tackle points but it went in vain. [caption id=“attachment_5482331” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Puneri Paltan beat Dabang Delhi to cement their place at the top of Zone A in Pro Kabaddi League. Image Courtesy: PKL[/caption] Girish Maruti Ernak regained the Orange band after claiming 2 tackle points to take his tally to 31 tackle points. Puneri Paltan entered the match with mixed signals as they lost their star raider Nitin Tomar to an injury while the captain, Girish finally made a return to the starting 7. The first half had its ups and downs for both teams. The initial five minutes of the match witnessing both teams just attempting to inflict damage through Do-Or-Die raids with Pune emerging successful. Delhi made a comeback with Chandran Ranjit’s 7th minute Super Raid which took Rinku Narwal, Sandeep Narwal and Ravi Kumar out of the equation. This led to a 9th minute All Out being conceded by Pune causing Delhi to lead 10-8. This lead was then handed back to Pune by Delhi’s star defenders in Monu’s 15th minute raid as Joginder, Ravinder Pahal and Vishal Mane got out cheaply to equalise the score at 13-13. Pune then inflicted an All Out on Delhi in the 17th minute after Rajesh Narwal and Yogesh Hooda got out a raid earlier to More G.B.. The half ended with Puneri Paltan leading by 7 points with 22-15. The second half saw both teams continue to use the same tactic of using Do-Or-Die raids. Pune used this to slow the game down while Delhi tried the trick to get tackle points. Naveen Kumar tried to make the game slightly interesting by getting touch points on Sandeep Narwal and Monu on the way back of his 22nd minute raid to make it 17-23. Meraj Sheykh was substituted to crack the Do-Or-Die raid tactic, which proved to be a great idea by Delhi as he got Sandeep out with his famous back kick in the 29th minute. However, Delhi continued to lose points as the raiders entered the lobby without a touch point regularly. Rinku Narwal and Sandeep created tantrums which the Delhi raiders couldn’t handle. Joginder was the man of the moment for Delhi but he couldn’t inspire his team to a victory as Delhi eventually went down 26-31 to the Pune franchise.