The Jaipur Pink Panthers and Dabang Delhi chalked a bit of history tonight, playing out the 200th Pro Kabaddi League match. The victory of Bengaluru Bulls over the Telugu Titans yesterday had relegated the Panthers down to fifth spot, while Delhi were lying seventh on the table.
The Panthers dominated the match after a slow start to score an emphatic 51-26 victory over the team from the capital city in the 20th match of Pro Kabaddi season 4 encounter. Rajesh Narwal played a stellar all-round role while Amit Hooda provided him great support in defense. Kashiling and Meraj had another good game, but the Delhi defense was in tatters for much of the evening.
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The match got off to a slow start with both the teams taking a measured approach to the contest. The game opened up when Rajesh Narwal took a touch point off Kashiling’s jersey on a do-or-die raid.
Delhi was down to three men quickly as Jaipur opened up a three-point gap at 5-2. Meraj Sheykh kept the team on the mat with a timely raid, but Jasvir Singh left him a loner when he made a two point raid.
Meraj earned another raid point to get Kashi back into play, but Jasvir cleaned up both men to inflict the first all out of the night. Jaipur was in command at 12-4, midway through the first half.
Delhi made an adjustment displacing D Gopu on the right with allrounder Meraj. Sanket continued to guard the left corner for the team. Ran Singh was doing a terrific job for Jaipur on their left corner. Amit Hooda was playing a steady hand on the opposite corner.
With the Delhi defense making some hasty errors, the team from Delhi was wiped off the mat in less than six minutes the second time over. Jaipur was looking formidable with a 23-8 advantage.
An energetic Meraj drew out a three-point raid to open the team’s third life, as the team from Delhi broke into double digits with just under two minutes to the end of the first half.
But the Panthers responded with three points of their own, two on the attack and one in defense to enter the break with a fifteen point advantage at 26-11.
Delhi revived their hopes, helped in the defense through the introduction of Prashant Chavan and the growing influence of Meraj in attack. They won 6 of the next eight points, but they were too far back to experience any significant change in fortune.
Jaipur was down to three men at one stage, but a super tackle helped them gain balance on the mat and a 14-point lead at 33-19. With less than ten minutes of play remaining it was quickly turning into a battle to avoid a massive defeat from Delhi’s perspective.
The acrobatic Meraj struck Jasvir, who suffered a cut to the face in the 36th minute and had to be stretchered away for treatment. By then though Jaipur stretched their lead to 19 points at 40-21.
The Panthers had suffered a 14 point defeat against U Mumba in the first PKL match in the inaugural season. They more than avenged for that blemish with a thumping effort on Wednesday, scoring a massive 25 point victory over Delhi in the 200th match of the league.
