Riding on Maninder Singh's heroic performance, Bengal Warriors edged past Jaipur Pink Panthers 32-31 in the Inter-Zone Challenge Week of Pro Kabaddi. In a nail-biting finish, Maninder (16 points) got a crucial bonus point in the dying moments to win it for Bengal Warriors at the Nehru Indoor stadium. Pawan Kumar scored 14 points for Jaipur Pink Panthers.
Bengal Warriors have 64 points from 19 matches and are second in Zone B table while Pink Panthers are fifth in Zone A with 44 points from 15 matches.
Pawan Kumar scored with successive raids to give Jaipur Pink Panthers 2-0 lead in the second minute. Bengal Warriors made it 3-3 in the fifth minute with a tackling point. Tushar Patil made a super raid in the ninth minute to give Jaipur 6-5 lead.
It was a close affair in the first half as teams exchanged raid and tackle points. Manjeet Chhillar had a quiet first half for Jaipur and scored just one tackle point. For Bengal, it was Maninder and Deepak Narwal who got three raid points each in the first half. Jang Kun Lee could get just one raid point. Pink Panthers went into the break leading 12-11.
Pink Panthers began the second half strongly as they forced an all out in the 23rd minute as they led 18-13. Bengal Warriors came back in the next few minutes as they trailed 18-20. Maninder scored with a two-point raid in the 32nd minute as Bengal Warriors made it 20-22.
The Panthers led 23-22 with less than six minutes left on the clock. They averted an all out for four minutes as they led 29-26 in the 28th minute.
Deepak Narwal got a bonus point in the 39th minute as Bengal Warriors tied the match at 30-30.
Maninder clinched the match in the dying seconds with a bonus point to give Bengal Warriors 32-31 victory.
