Hooda and Pawar’s outstanding raiding gives Jaipur Pink Panthers their third win

Jaipur Pink Panthers survived 4 Super Tackles to score a 45-28 victory over U.P. Yoddha at The Arena by TransStadia in Ahmedabad on Friday. Ajinkya Pawar and Deepak Niwas Hooda led the Jaipur Pink Panthers raiders, scoring 19 points between them.

Jaipur Pink Panthers took an early 5-1 lead in the match by sending three U.P. Yoddha raiders, Rohit Kumar Choudary, Rishank Devadiga and Shrikant Jadhav to the bench. However, a self out by Deepak Hooda gave U.P. Yoddha a Super Tackle and chance to come back into the match at 5-3.

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But from there, Jaipur Pink Panthers started a run that saw them score nine points while conceding only three. This phase also included an All-Out inflicted on U.P. Yoddha in the 7^th minute. Raider Ajinkya Pawar, who came in as a substitute for Nitin Rawal, was in exceptional touch for Jaipur Pink Panthers as he scored six of the team’s nine raid points in the half. Rishank Devadiga and Azad Singh were the only raiders to get any kind of success for U.P. Yoddha in this period, but even they could manage only two touch points among the seven raid points they scored between each other.

The U.P. Yoddha defence, though, was exceptional on the night and inflicted back-to-back Super Tackles on Jaipur Pink Panthers in the closing minutes of the half to keep their team in the hunt at halftime with the score reading 20-15 in Jaipur Pink Panthers’ favour.

Ajinkya Pawar scored the first point of the second half with a touch on Sachin Kumar in a Do-or-Die raid but Rishank Devadiga immediately retaliated with a touch point of his own. Hooda’s successful Do-or-Die raid in the 7^th minute brought U.P. Yoddha down to 3 men on the mat. However, Nitesh Kumar and Jeeva Kumar managed another Super Tackle on Anup Kumar and kept the score difference at 5 points.

Pawar continued scoring heavily in his raids and a successful tackle on Nitesh Kumar helped Jaipur Pink Panthers finally inflict the All-Out on U.P. Yoddha in the 14^th minute, taking the score to 30-21. 

Once U.P. Yoddha reassembled, Hooda seemed to hit his stride as he returned three successive successful raids for side to help them take a 35-25 lead. Reduced to three men on the mat once again, U.P. Yoddha inflicted a fourth Super Tackle, this time by Narender.

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But Hooda’s touch on Narender followed by a successful tackle on Sagar B Krishna brought U.P. Yoddha down to a solitary player on the mat and they then inflicted another All-Out in the closing minutes. Jaipur Pink Panthers then took out three more U.P. Yoddha players to score a 45-28 victory.

Top Performers

Jaipur Pink Panthers

Best Raider: Deepak Hooda (10 raid points)

Best Defender: Sunil Siddhgavali (5 tackle points)

U.P. Yoddha

Best Raider: Rishank Devadiga (7 raid points)

Best Defender: Nitesh Kumar (6 tackle points)