Pro Kabaddi League 1st semi final, Jaipur Pink Panthers vs Patna Pirates: Jaipur outclass Patna in one sided affair

Jaipur Pink Panthers after topping the group stage faced Patna Pirates in the first semi finals of the evening and the Pro Kabaddi League in what proved to be a one sided affair for almost the entire game in the favor of the Pink Panthers.

Patna seemed to be in motivated frame of mind at the start of the first half as they quickly built a 3 points lead on the Pink Panthers. The Panthers scored their first point when Rakesh Kumar failed to block Maninder Singh cleanly and both the teams got 1 point each. After this point though, it was all Jaipur as they scored 19 more points in the remaining time in the half while the Pirates managed only 2.

Jaipur lead 20-6 at the end of the first half and they managed to dismiss the whole team of the Patna Pirates on 2 occasions. Such was the intensity in their performance that 6 of their 7 players scored a defensive points in the first half. The major reason for the failure of the Pirates was the failure of their top three raiders. Rakesh Kumar, Ravi Dalal and Sandeep Narhwal, all failed to score points in the first half when it was required and thus conceded a lead of 14 points in the first half.

The second half too was a similar story as the Pink Panthers  kept piling on to the tally of the score as they went on to win the game 37-18. Although the second half saw a slightly better performance from the Pirates, it was still below par compared to the standards set by the Pink Panthers. The Jaipur team managed to outscore the Pirates in the second half as well even after the absence of star raider Maninder Singh from the raiding business for an elongated period of time.

The most disappointed part of the game was the failure of Patna’s raiding trio which lead to the game being one sided. Jaipur will now face the winner of the second semi finals between U Mumba and Bengaluru Bulls on the 31st of August.

The game ended with the feel good moment of Abhishek Bachchan being raised on the shoulders of his players and celebrating their victory.