Puneri Paltan managed to drew the game against Warriors else they would have faced their third defeat of the season had the Warriors continued their form in the seocnd half in Match 30 of the fourth edition of Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League on Tuesday at Sree Kanteevara Stadium in Bengaluru. After the draw as well, Bengal Warriors are nearly out of the tournament keeping in mind their poor performance in the season, whereas Puneri Paltan are at the top of the table with 28 points in 4 wins.

In the first half to everyone’s surprise, Bengal Warriors fought extremely well against Pune and attacked with their full efforts as they wanted to show their abilities in the match. Korean raider Jang Kun Lee played well along with Nitin Madane and gave 10 points over Pune’s 3 in first 10 minutes of the game. Pune countered well with Deepak Niwas Hooda taking out raiders of the Warriors and cut down the deficit as scoreline read 11-13. At the lunch time Pune had managed to come close to the Warriors score, although they could not take lead against them. At break, score was 18-16 in favor of Bengal Warriors.

Countering in the second half, Puneri Paltanon was leading against Warriors with the help of Ravinder Pahal who took out the Korean raider. Deepka Niwas Hooda played brilliantly and scored 10 points in the match with the help of poor performance by the Warrior’s defense. With Vishal Mane equalizing the score at 27-27  with only 10 minutes remaining in the game, the next five minutes saw cat and mouse game between both the teams. At the end, when the score was tied at 34-34, it was Deepak Niwas Hooda’s last raid everything was dependent on. Hooda just had to score a point and Pune would have got their fifth win of the season. But Hooda chose to play defensively and let the game completed on a tie note.

By Prajakt K.