Pune, Oct 18: Puneri Paltan skipper Deepak Hooda once again led from the front to complete yet another super 10 to crush Jaipur Pink Panthers 38-15 at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Pune on Wednesday.
With this win against Jaipur, Pune climbed to the second spot in Zone A and pushed Haryana Steelers to the third spot. Hooda was Pune's top performer of the night with a game-high 14 points.
A relatively low-scoring first 10 minutes saw Pune manage a 5-3 lead before a successful tackle on Hooda and a successful raid by Jaipur's Nitin Rawal made it 5-5 in the 11th minute.
Akshay Jadhav though raided successfully for Pune and was backed up by his defence in the 13thminute when they pulled off a successful tackle on Jasvir Singh to reopen their two-point lead.
The hosts went on to extend their lead to five points before half-time primarily on the back of some robust tackling.
That being said, a crucial do-or-die raid which Hooda completed successfully for his team also played a role in giving Pune a 12-7 lead at the break.
The second period saw the hosts switch gears and take it up a notch or two as they inflicted an All-Out on Jaipur four minutes into the half for an 18-8 lead.
Hooda was Pune's protagonist and wreaked havoc on Jaipur while attacking as well as defending.
Jaipur did try rallying and picked up a few points through Pawan Kumar but the home side still had a 23-11 advantage heading into the last 10 minutes of the match.
Hooda then nipped any hope of an unlikely Jaipur comeback in the bud with a brilliant two-point raid that enforced another All-Out on the Panthers and made it 32-12 in favour of the hosts.
They saw out the remainder of the match with more conviction in defence and lethal in the offence to trot to a comfortable win.