Puneri Paltan carried on their winning momentum from Saturday's match to thump U Mumba 41-19 in Maharashtra derby here on Sunday. The team from Pune began its campaign on Saturday with a 28-24 win over Telugu Titans.
Paltan began the proceedings but it was an empty raid by vice captain Ajay Thakur. A huge roar welcomed Anup Kumar but he too returned with empty raid. It was Deepak Hooda who got first point for the Paltan but Rishank equalised with bonus point. Then Paltan lead 5-1 and from there on things only got worse for the hosts.
In the 7th minute of the game, U Mumba team was all out. The Paltan were just too hot to handle. In the 10th minute of the game, Paltan captain Manjeet Chhillar forced Jeeva Kumar out of the mat and it resulted in all out of U Mumba team again! Paltan's star of the night Ajay Thakur did a super raid and took the lead to 10 points.
Paltan at that stage looking be to running away with the game. Every time Ajay Thakur went for a raid, he meant business and had only thing in his mind, not to return empty hand and that's what he did. If Thakur was the star raider for the team, one should not forget that defenders were equally important. Joginder Narwal was their go-to-man when defending. At the half time, the Paltan were leading 26-10.
After the break, it was the same script for U Mumba. Puneri were running away with the game. In the end, Ajay Thakur and Manjeet Chhillar proved to be too hot to handle and it was nothing but dejection on faces of U Mumba players. Nitin Tomar went for the raid for the Paltan when only few seconds were remaining and just killed the time to give the team from Pune their first ever win over U Mumba in history of Pro Kabaddi league.
Earlier in the day, Bengaluru Bulls edged Bengal Warriors 24-23 in highly competitive and nail biting finish. The Bulls struck at death to snatch the game from the Warriors. The losing team was quite hasty and ended up being too cautious. It was their star player Rohit Kumar who reminded the fans once again why was their best player. It was a battle of defences as both teams put in a solid performance but it was the Bulls who kept their cool and emerged victorious. For long spells in the game, it looked like the Warriors would come out on top but the Bulls' star man Rohit Kumar put in a stellar performance in the last five minutes to stage a remarkable comeback.
The first all out of the game came in the 13th minute of the second half and with it the Warriors stretched their lead to six points with the score 21-15. But Bengal Warriors made two tactical errors in the last five minutes and Rohit capitalized on them. With the score 23-21 in favour of the Warriors, the Bulls picked the perfect time to inflict their first all out and get a slender lead of one point.