Pro Kabaddi: Bottom-placed Puneri Paltan begin home leg with win over Dabang Delhi

Pune: Bottom-placed Puneri Paltan salvaged some pride as they commenced the home phase with a well fought 33-28 win over Dabang Delhi in Season 2 of Pro Kabaddi here on Sunday.

Veteran Jitesh Joshi and Sanjay Kumar with seven and six points respectively, including a bonus, were the architects of Pune’s win.

Sanjay in fact came up with a super raid that helped his side inflict an all-out in the 34th minute. That was after almost 30 minutes that Pune grabbed the lead at 28-24. Ravi Kumar shone in defence for the Punekars.

With this win the hosts tally goes up to 15 points with no change in their eighth position. For Dabang Delhi, Kashiling Adake was subdued and so was Rohit Choudhary. The five point loss meant Dabangs got one point to increase their tally to 27 points.

The first half belonged to Delhi as they scored the all-out in the 10th minute to lead 12-4. The half-time score stood 18-11 in their favour. It was Kashiling and Shrikant Tewthia doing most of the damage.

Kashiling had five plus a bonus with one two point raid. Shrikant had one super tackle on Sanjay and two defence points. Pune came back strongly on resumption to effect the all-out to narrow the lead to 16-19.

Jitesh and Sanjay helped Pune go ahead 25-23 followed by that super from Sanjay for the all-out. Thereafter Pune held on as Jitesh and Sanjay kept the score board ticking.

A two-pointer by Shrikant kept Delhi in the hunt, but three good catches by Sanjay, Ravi and for once Balamahendra Kalimuthu getting his grip right, the hosts sealed the match.

In the other match, Bengal Warriors put up a stellar performance to finally edge Jaipur Pink Panthers 39-38 in their last match after enjoying a commanding lead of 13 points going into the last quarter of play.

The last man on the field for Bengal failed to enter for the last raid with seconds left on the clock. But he delayed and Jasvir appealed for a replay and the result was a technical point to his team. But Jasvir claimed an all-out which would have given the Panthers three points but as per the rules when a technical point is awarded a player is not given out.

The result has boosted Bengal’s tally to 27 points and given them the sixth place above Dabang Delhi who finished with 26 points today to finish the league stage. Jaipur have 37 points in 13 matches and play Patna next. The Pirates have 31 from 12 and need to win both their matches. Jaipur can escape to the semis with a draw against Patna with a tally of 40 points. But before that Patna have to get the better of Pune.

PTI