Puneri Paltan’s young team battled against a hardened Dabang Delhi K.C. defence to record a 30-23 victory at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex on Monday. In a low-scoring game, where the two defences logged a combined 17 points, Puneri Paltan’s Aslam Inamdar (8 points) and Delhi’s Ashu Malik (9 points) were the standout raiders.
Puneri Paltan stormed out of the blocks, into an early lead and with Delhi missing their talisman Naveen Kumar, the going looked grim. With their numbers swiftly dwindling, it came down to a brilliant raid and then a SUPER TACKLE by Yogesh to hold the barrage. Eventually, though Dabang Delhi produced an ALL OUT to take a 13-8 lead.
The two teams were evenly matched defensively, but Naveen’s absence showed in the lack of raid points Dabang Delhi were able to accumulate. For Paltan, Aslam Inamdar and Mohit Goyat logged 6 points each as they went into the break leading 18-12.
Recognising their weakness on the raid, Delhi tightened up in defence early in the second half, steadily gaining back points with stout defending that forced the Paltan to take more risks or go empty-handed.
The game turned into a defensive tactical masterclass with raid points coming at a premium — a mere 11 raid points came through the second period — as Paltan matched Delhi’s defensive grit toe to toe. Despite going down to three players at a time, Pankaj Mohite’s SUPER TACKLE pulled them out of trouble as they took a gritty, and deserved victory.
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