PKL 2017: Puneri Paltan bounce back to register win against Jaipur Pink Panthers

Jaipur, Oct 8: Puneri Paltan bounced back from their previous loss to Bengal Warriors to hit top gear once again and down hosts Jaipur Pink Panthers 38-30 at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Sunday (October 8).

Rajesh Mondal finished with 9 raid points for Pune, while Nitin Rawal led a late fightback for Jaipur, finishing with 7 points from the game.

Puneri Paltan made their intentions clear from the start dashing out Tushar Patil in his first raid and then picking up raid points through their captain Deepak Hooda and Mondal. They reduced Jaipur to 3 men in just 3 minutes and took an early 4-0 lead. They kept the hosts from scoring and then inflicted an All-Out to go up by 9 points with no points on the board for Jaipur.

Manjeet Chhillar finally picked up the first point for Jaipur in the 8th minute as the home team trailed 1-11. Chhillar led the Jaipur fightback, making life difficult for the Pune raiders and getting the deficit down to 7 points with only 3 Pune players left on the mat. But a super tackle on Jasvir initiated by young Rinku Narwal and then some quick raiding by Mondal took Pune 10 points clear again at 17-7. It looked like Pune would ride the momentum from there and get away with the game but a super tackle by Jaipur kept the difference to 10 points as Pune led 19-9 at half time.

Hooda started the second half well for the Paltan, picking up danger man Chhillar in the first raid itself. Pune surged ahead from there and handed Jaipur their second All-Out of the night while taking an unassailable 25-10 lead in the process.

The Pune defence was relentless on the night, taking apart the Jaipur attack and not giving them any breathing space. Girish Maruti Ernak picked up a High 5 in the 11th minute as the Paltan extended their lead to 32-13. Jaipur kept trying to claw back into the contest through their young find Rawal and substitute Rahul Choudhary's quick fire raids but the game was too far out of their grasp by then.

On the brink of an All-Out, Puneri Paltan finally pulled off a super tackle on Rawal but eventually succumbed to the inevitable in the last raid of the night. Jaipur still couldn't salvage any points from the contest though as they lost by 8 points.