Warriors pip Panthers in thriller

Riding on Maninder Singh’s heroic performance, Bengal Warriors edged past Jaipur Pink Panthers 32-31 in the Inter Zone Challenge Week of Pro Kabaddi, here on Sunday.

In a nail-biting finish, Maninder (16 points) got a crucial bonus point in the dying moments to win it for Warriors at the Nehru Indoor stadium. Pawan Kumar scored 14 points for Jaipur.

Bengal Warriors have 64 points from 19 matches and are second in Zone ‘B’ table while Panthers are fifth in Zone ‘A’ with 44 points from 15 matches.

Pawan Kumar scored with successive raids to give Jaipur Pink Panthers 2-0 lead in the second minute. Bengal Warriors made it 3-3 in the fifth minute with a tackle point. Tushar Patil made a super raid in the ninth minute to give Jaipur 6-5 lead. It was a close affair in the first half as teams exchanged raid and tackle points.

Manjeet Chhillar had a quiet first half for Jaipur and scored just one tackle point. For Bengal it was Maninder and Deepak Narwal who got three raid points each in the first half. Jang Kun Lee could get just one raid point. Panthers went into the break leading 12-11.

Panthers began the second half strongly as they forced an all out in the 23rd minute as they led 18-13. Bengal Warriors came back in the next few minutes and bagged a narrow win.