Pro Kabaddi: Jaipur brush aside Gujarat to go third in Zone A

Jaipur Pink Panthers avenged their defeat at the hands of table-toppers Gujarat Fortunegiants in their first meeting with a clinical 31-25 victory in a Zone A Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) tie at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Indoor Stadium here on Sunday.

Bengal tied their yesterday's match against UP as they consolidated their position atop the Zone B standings with 40 points from 11 matches. Sachin scored 13 points for Gujarat Fortunegiants as they squandered their first half advantage. He was well supported by captain Sukesh Hegde and Rohit Gulia. It is the last and 3rd game for these two teams to meet each other in the Pro Kabaddi 2017. In the 17th minute, Wazir, left alone, raided successfully to close the gap from 15-10 to 15-13.

Gujarat appeared to be making up for their previous loss to Haryana Steelers and were off to a flying start.

Gujarat continued its dominance and built a 10-point gap (26-16) after the break. Credit should also be given to their star defender Somvir Shekhar who foiled Gujarat's bid for a comeback and logged four points as Jaipur (28) jumped to third place with their fifth win from eight matches. It thwarted Gujarat's last-ditch effort and broke its seven-match unbeaten run.

Pawan Kumar played a flawless ally to his skipper and garnered four raid points. UP banked on Nitin Tomar's raids to close the gap. The score at the end of this half was 14--9 in favour of Jaipur Pink Panthers.

Jaipur quietly made progress with Pawan snatching some fine points while their defence too began to flourish foiling Pawan's incisive attempts to curtail the deficit to 5-7 after 12 minutes.