Patna: Displaying their might in the raiding department, title holders Jaipur Pink Panthers defeated a fighting Puneri Paltan 35-29 to register their second win in the season 2 of Pro Kabaddi League at the Pataliputra Stadium in Patna on Sunday.
The winners leading 19-13 at half time, finally maintained their winning margin. The teams exchanged positions on the league table, with the Panthers going up to sixth with 13 points above their rivals who have 10 to their credit.
Both the teams made drastic changes in their line ups with Pune handing over the mantle of captaincy to Pravin Niwale in the absence of Wazir Singh. Pune coach Ashok Shinde introduced Tushar Patil from the start and the youngster proved his coach right with his display.
Jaipur brought back Navneet Gautam but dispensed him after the first quarter as he fell prey twice once to Amit Rathi who too met with little success.
Comparatively Sonu Narwal exhibited his class with a super raid to put his side ahead 7-4 early on.
Pune retaliated with a super tackle on Rajesh Narwal to narrow the gap.
With Jasvir also stepping up the tempo to claim three victims in three raids, the Panthers came close to inflicting an all-out.
Their intentions were however sabotaged by Pravin for some time. He first came up with a bonus plus one victim and next claimed two but that was turned down after an unsuccessful referral.
With the one he got he brought the margin down at 8-11.
But Pune had to face the inevitable with Jasvir netting in two and as Amit was caught after Pravin's dismissal the winners went ahead at 15-10 with the all-out in the 14th minute.
The second half saw Panthers keeping abreast with Rajesh scoring a brace to end with eight valuable points inclusive of two catching points. Jasvir also kept his momentum going to increase his tally to seven in 12 raids.
Sonu Narwal ended with seven in a dozen raids with his intelligently taken bonus points and effective high kicks.
For Pune, Pravin kept the flag flying but he didn't have much support although Sanjay Kumar and substitute Mahipal Narwal got two and three points respectively.
In the end the fall of Pravin with a couple of minutes after getting Jasvir but falling to a super tackle by Rajesh, Pune's hopes vanished in thin air.
