Lucknow Aug 18 (IANS) Jaipur Pink Panthers pipped Bengaluru Bulls 30-28 in a thrilling tie of the Pro Kabaddi League Season 5 of the inter zone challenge week at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium here on Friday.
Jaipur rode on terrific raiding performance from Jasvir Singh (10 points) and a rock-solid defensive display from birthday boy Manjeet Chhillar (8) to hold their nerve and hold on to a much-needed win.
It was Jaipur Pink Panthers second win of the campaign whereas Bengaluru Bulls crashed to their fifth defeat.
Jaipur began strongly as they led 5-2 after minutes with their defence inflicting damage on Bengaluru raiders.
Bengaluru were a bit slow to begin with but star raider Rohit Kumar brought them back into the game with a do-or- die raid in the 15th minute to draw levels at 8-8.
Bengaluru inflicted an all out in the next minute as Rohit scored two more points to give his team a 12-8 lead.
Thereafter Jasvir came with up an incredible super raid in the 16th minute as Jaipur made it 11-12 before sharing the spoils at 12-12 in the 19th minute.
Jaipur immediately forced an all out in the 20th minute to go into the break leading 17-14.
Coming back Jasvir scored his eighth raid point in the 23d minute as Jaipur led 19-14 before Manjeet attained a high-five to stretch their lead to 21-14 after 27 minutes.
Jaipur inflicted another all out in the 29th minute to lead 26-16 to dominate the first 10 minutes of the second half.
Bengaluru s defence managed just four tackle points in the first 30 minutes of the match. Two tackle points by Bengaluru reduced the deficit to eight points as they trailed 20-27 after 34 minutes.
In the last five minutes Bengaluru s challenge was to reduce the defeat margin to seven or less points to which Ajay Kumar responded with a raid point in the 39th minute to trail 23-29.
Jaipur were reduced to just one man as Bengaluru launched a comeback and trailed 25-29.
Towards the end Bengaluru inflicted an all out to reduce the deficit to just one point but Jaipur survived a scare thanks to Jasvir s raid point in the last second of the match to win 30-28.
--IANS
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