Jasvir sizzles as Jaipur forces a tie

Captain Jasvir Singh led from the front with nine points from 16 raids as Jaipur fought back after being 11-14 at half time and trailing 12-23 at one point. Two all outs were effected by Bengaluru to further extend the lead before Jasvir decided to take charge of the raids.

Jaipur captain Jasvir completed his final raid in less than 10 seconds to earn his side a valuable tie.

In 14 minutes, Jaipur Pink Panthers attacked with purpose, tightened its defence and got lucky a couple of times to cover up a 11-point deficit and split points with Bengaluru Bulls, with a 28-28 tie, in its second home game in the fourth edition of the Pro Kabaddi league here on Thursday.

> READ: Jaipur's Jasvir and Shabeer open about Prokabbadi

Captain Jasvir Singh led from the front with nine points from 16 raids as Jaipur fought back after being 11-14 at half time and trailing 12-23 at one point. Two all outs were effected by Bengaluru to further extend the lead before Jasvir decided to take charge of the raids.

Taking full advantage of his speed, he managed to get the slightest of touches to the Bengaluru players even as the host’s defence tightened. For a large part of the game, there was a clear lack of coordination and combination in Jaipur’s defence as Ran Singh and Amit Hooda often went for individual tackles, only to concede points. Only seven of its total points came from tackles.

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Bengaluru, which had won its previous game by a single point to open its campaign with a win, was caught by surprise at Jaipur’s aggression in the later stages of the game and paid for an unstable defence. The team made a positive start and remained ahead of the opposition for most of the game.

Rohit Kumar and Vinod Kumar were the key players and were able to find openings in the Jaipur defence with ease. But once Jasvir got going, targeting the corner defenders and staying to the edges instead of trying to get a foothold through the middle, the inside defenders were unable to grab him.

With 45 seconds to go, Bengaluru still had a two-point lead and could have won but Jasvir completed his final raid in less than 10 seconds successfully, forcing Rohit into a final attempt from Bengaluru trying to defend its one-point lead. Unlike its previous game, however, the team had be satisfied with a tie.

Meanwhile, the second game of the Women's league saw Ice Divas win comprehensively 28-15 against the Storm Queens. Led by captain Abhilasha Mhatre's all-round performance, the Ice Divas had a compact defence that did not allow the opposition any space.

The scores: Ice Divas 28 (Abhilasha Mhatre 9, Lalita 4, Meenal Jadhav 4, Monu 4) bt Storm Queens 15 (Jyoti 5, Sakshi Kumari 3, Moti Chandan 3).