Another draw for Puneri Paltans

PUNE: Puneri Paltan took the advice of repeating their Thursday's performance 'literally', as they drew against Jaipur Pink Panthers 32-32 in their Pro Kabaddi League match at Shiv Chhatrapati sports complex in Mhalunge-Balewadi on Friday. This is hosts Pune's second draw in as many home games, as they had eked out a 30-30 draw against Patna Pirates in their last game.
The results may not have given Pune full points, but the hosts did everything to keep the spectators on the edge of their seats.
Pune's skipper Manjeet Chillar and Ajay Thakur were the backbone of the hosts as they jointly won 24 points. While Chillar was all-round in his approach with six raid and seven tackle points, Thakur's 11 points came through raids.
The duo revived the home team when they were down 10-20 till the 17th minute. Jaipur looked poised to maintain the strong lead till the breather, but Thakur's three successful raids in three minutes turned the match. His raids not only gave Pune six points, but also saw Jaipur getting all out once. Chillar, on the other hand won two tackle points to take Pune 18-21 before the first half ended.
Pune were more agile in the second half and Chillar and Thakur continued winning points for Pune and never allowed Jaipur to go ahead. Sonu Narwal and Rajesh Narwal scored nine points each for Jaipur, but they failed to get support of their teammates.
Another positive for Pune was the short revival time they took to bring their key players back in the game.
Patna crush Delhi 47-34
If bottom-placed Dabang Delhi had to reason their poor performance in Pro Kabaddi League 3 so far, their 47-34 loss against Patna Pirates would have been enough to explain the problems the team is going through. The team from North remained winless after their seventh game as nothing went right for them.
The team lacked strategy.
Be it their tackles or raids, the moves were more spontaneous in than planned. The Delhi players were seen scattered, especially while defending, making things easy for Patna raiders.
Delhi were 'all out' thrice in 40 minutes and could return the favour only once.
Their defenders could get only five tackle points, while their counterparts from Patna were way ahead with 11 points.