Bengaluru Bulls edged the Jaipur Pink Panthers 30-29 in the Pro Kabaddi League at the Sree Kanteerva Indoor Stadium on Wednesday.
The Bulls ensured that they progressed to the semifinals with this victory. The other three semifinalists are the Jaipur Pink Panthers, U Mumba and Patna Pirates.
Spurred on by a boisterous home crowd the Bulls gave it their all in this encounter. In the end, the Bengaluru Bulls' fans had reasons to cheer as their side came out victors with a resolute show.
It was the Bulls who started the match well as they scored the first point of the game. Ajay Thakur got the scoreboard working via a raid which had Panthers skipper Navneet Gautam in all sorts of trouble.
The Pink Panthers, though, showed that they were not going to sit back and let the Bulls roll them over. The Panthers soon hit back as the score was seven-all after 10 minutes of hard-fought action.
Then the Pink Panthers suddenly surged ahead and seized the lead. They scored LONA points by way of Rohit Rana. Bengaluru Bulls, at this point, could not afford to concede more points and they had to start hitting back by scoring points of their own.
It was here that Deepak Kumar produced a moment of magic, as he hoodwinked Pink Panthers' Raju Lal Choudhary and procured a point for the Bulls. They, however, still trailed by three points as the first half came to a close. The score read 17-14.
The Bengaluru Bulls, who needed to desperately to win the game, realised that in the second half a more attacking performance was needed. Kumar then duly added to his score, as he had the Panthers defence in all sorts of strife.
Soon, Bulls' skipper Manjit Chillar got into the act as he scored LONA points. This also gave the Bulls the lead. Kumar continued to flourish as his own defence thwarted the Pink Panthers who were making attempts to seize the lead back.
In the end, though, the Bulls managed to keep the Pink Panthers from scoring as they came away with a 30-29 victory.
Points Table--
1] Jaipur Pink Panthers -- 54 points
2] U Mumba -- 51 points
3] Bengaluru Bulls -- 47 points
4] Patna Pirates -- 45 points
5] Telugu Titans -- 42 points
6] Dabang Delhi -- 32 points
7] Bengal Warriors -- 24 points
8] Puneri Paltan -- 17 points
