Pro Kabaddi League: Pink Panthers beat Patna Pirates to remain on top

Mumbai, July 22 (ANI):Jaipur Pink Panthers produced a solid team performance to register a convincing 29-22 victory over Patna Pirates here at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Indoor Stadium on Thursday. Ajay Kumar scored seven points for Jaipur Pink Panthers and came up with crucial raids on a night where Patna Pirates were made to look extremely ordinary by Jaipur. With the win, Jaipur Pink Panthers maintained their position at the top and now have 47 points from 13 games. Patna Pirates can still overhaul them as they have two games in hand but remained second with 41 points after 11 games. Jasvir Singh opened Jaipur Pink Panthers' account in the first minute with a raid. Jaipur Pink Panthers' defence scored two tackle points and kept Patna Pirates' star man Pardeep Narwal quiet to lead 3-1 after five minutes. Patna defence scored their first point as they sent off Jasvir Singh to the bench to trail 2-3 after six minutes. Pardeep Narwal opened his account in the seventh minute as Patna Pirates leveled the game at 3-3. Pardeep Narwal got rid of Shabeer Bapu as Jaipur were reduced to three men and Patna leading 5-3 after 11 minutes. Ajay Kumar scored a raid point and Jaipur defence sent Pardeep Narwal to the bench in 10th minute to tie the game at 5-5. Rajesh Mondal, the do-or-die specialist for Patna Pirates got into the act and scored his first point with the game level at 7-7 after 15 minutes. With Jasvir Singh having a quiet first half, it was Ajay Kumar who garnered raid points for Jaipur as they led 9-7 in the 17th minute. Fazel Athrachali sent Jasvir Singh to the bench in the 18th minute to tie the game at 9-9 Pardeep Narwal scored with a two-point raid in the 20th minute as Patna Pirates went into the break leading 11-9. Pardeep Narwaland Rajesh Narwal scored two raid points each for both teams as Patna Pirates led 13-11 after 22 minutes. Jaipur leveled the game at 13-13 in 23rd minute as they forced a super tackle. Jaipur Pink Panthers led 15-14 after 27 minutes in what was turning out to be an extremely close contest. Jaipur Pink Panthers inflicted an all out in 30th minute as they led 20-16 but their skipper Jasvir Singh was shown a yellow card. With less than eight minutes remaining Patna Pirates reduced the deficit to two points as they trailed 18-20. Jaipur Pink Panthers led 22-18 after 34 minutes as Patna turned to Pardeep Narwal for some inspiration. Jaipur Pink Panthers, however, had other ideas and sent him to the bench as they led 24-19 with just under five minutes left on the clock. In the last two minutes, Patna Pirates aim was to salvage a point and reduce the defeat margin to seven points. Jaipur Pink Panthers inflicted the second all out in the 39th minute to open a nine-point gap and led 29-20. However, Patna Pirates managed to keep the deficit to seven points and lost 22-29.(ANI)