Pune outclass Bengal in PKL contest

Ahmedabad: Zone A team Puneri Paltans outclassed Zone B side Bengal Warriors 34-17 in an inter-zone Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) contest at the Transstadia Arena here on Tuesday to maintain their second position in the group standings.

Puneri Paltan combined well to pull off an all-round performance with key performances from defenders Sandeep Narwal (7 points) and Girish Ernak (4 points) along with raider G.B. More (6 points) to help their side win by a massive 17-point margin.

Bengal Warriors failed to combine well as a unit in either half. Raider Maninder Singh (6 points) and defender Ran Singh (7 points) were their key performers.

Maninder Singh gave Bengal Warriors a bright start by clinching points from consecutive raids. Maninder along with Ran Singh took most of the load for the Warriors in the first half with star raider Jang Kun Lee on in his usual fiery form.

Puneri Paltans were straight forced to go for a do or die raid after their skipper Deepak Hooda failed to clinch points from his initial raids. 

But Soon Sandeep Narwal began to dominate the opposition, helping his side impose an all-out on the Warriors and take a 12-5 lead with less than six minutes to go in the first half.

Along with Narwal, More, Hooda, Choudhary and Girish Ernak combined well to help the Pune outfit take a 17-10 lead at half-time.

The second half began with consecutive empty raids for both the sides.

Later, Bengal broke the deadlock to cut short their deficit with a fine tackle point to begin with. But soon Pune began to dominate as the Warriors failed to clinch too many points through their raids.

Ran and Maninder showed some hope for the Warriors through their defence and attack respectively in the second half helping their side narrow the deficit.

Pune started to dominate thanks to their all-round show resulting in the second all-out for Bengal with 15 minutes to play.