In a fourth match of the first leg of Pune Paltan, the team successfully managed to drew with Dabang Delhi at 27-27 in the fourth season of the Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League 2016.

Delhi, who has failed to impress the experts in all the four seasons of the Pro Kabaddi league, opened with 5-0 against Pune, thanks to a classic performance by Sachin Shingade who made two tackles and a super tackle. But their over dependence on skipper Kashling Akade, who has scored 300 raid points in 39 matches till season 3 and Iranian raider Meraj Sheykah, proved harmful to Delhi as Pune’s defense started to take care of them. Pune team had ended the first half by 15-13 with two points lead.

Manjeet Chhillar, managed to score big for Puneri Paltan and helped Pune to secure a draw after holding Delhi’s Iranian raider Meraj Sheykah. Delhi’s another raider Deepak Narwal gave a lead to his team after getting three tackle points when Pune was leading at 24-23. But other raiders just couldn’t take the advantage of Deepak’s performance.

Puneri Paltan who has scored massive against Mumbai before being beaten by defending champions Patna Pirates on Monday, has given a great performance with the help of their star performers Manjeet Chhillar and Sonu Narwal.   

In the evening, women’s first Kabaddi season also kicked off and among the three teams which are participating in the first season, Fire Birds defeated Ice Divas 25-12. Even though the women fell, jumped and proved a bit slow and less in aggressiveness, they managed to win the appreciation of the audience.

Indian Women’s team skipper Mithali Raj, who sang the national anthem at the start of the evening’s proceedings, said, “It is certainly great for Kabaddi women as their game went pro. They showed that women are capable of excelling even this full body contact macho sport.”

By Prajakt K.