Pro Kabaddi: Bengal edges past Telugu Titans, Jaipur ends win drought

Bengal Warriors jumped to the first position in the points table after defeating Telugu Titans. Later, Jaipur registered its first win after nine matches.

Bengal Warriors' skipper Maninder Singh (in blue) scored 17 raid points to help his team extend its winning streak to six matches.

Maninder Singh led from the front, achieving a personal milestone and single-handedly dragging his team past the finish line as Bengal Warriors edged past Telugu Titans 40-39 to go on top of the points table in the seventh season of the Pro Kabaddi League here on Wednesday.

It was the second consecutive one-point win for the Bengal team, Maninder scoring a whopping 17 of his team’s points and going past 150 touch points for the season, stepping forward every time his team appeared in trouble.

He first changed the game by failed raid but taking three defenders out with him in the 14th minute and then effecting an 'All-out' two raids later. Every time Titans managed to take off a point, Maninder would hit back with two of his own. With a well-rounded defence led by veteran Jeeva Kumar that kept the pressure up on the opposition, his attacks made all the difference.

Siddharth Desai tried gamely to counter Maninder’s challenge, scoring 15 points but despite his best attempts ⁠—including a 'Super-raid' and helping his team effect an 'All-out' on Bengal ⁠— found his team falling short in defence. Titans, in fact, scored five more raid points than the winner, most of them coming in the last 1.5 minutes, but Bengal had already sealed the result by then. 

While Bengal has already comfortably qualified for the playoffs, Titans, however, continues to languish at second-last position with any residual hopes of making it to the playoffs.

-Jaipur thrashes Pune-

The second match saw home side, Jaipur Pink Panthers, start tentatively but race ahead to a comfortable 43-34 win in the second half against Puneri Paltan to stay 7th and keep its hope alive of making it to the next stage.

An all-round show from the onset — with Deepak Narwal assisting Deepak Hooda in the raiding department and Amit Hooda with early tackle points — ensured that Jaipur drew first blood with an 'All-out'. Jaipur made the most of Pune's eight unsuccessful tackles to take a 20-13 lead at half-time.

Pankaj Mohite, of Pune, turned up in the second half and stitched up Pune's revival to help his side effect an 'All-out' on Jaipur. However, he proved to be the lone warrior as Paltan's defensive errors kept creeping in. The corner defenders of Jaipur, in the form of Amit and Sandeep Dhull, scores eight tackle points ably assisted Deepak Narwal and Deepak Hooda in the raiding department. The two raiders brought up their 'Super-10s', inflicted another 'All-out' on Pune as the home team finally clinched a victory after a nine-game win drought.