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Jaipur Pink Panthers thrashed Patna Pirates 51-30 in the first match of January 30 (Sunday) in Pro Kabaddi League season 8 at the Sheraton Grand, Whitefield in Bengaluru. Arjun Deshwal was the star for Pink Panthers. In the second match of the evening Tamil Thalaivas hammered Bengaluru Bulls 42-24 in a pretty one-sided contest to win the southern derby.
Jaipur's convincing start
In the first match of Sunday, Panthers started the game in a very convincing fashion as they dominated the first half despite coming to the match as underdogs. The Panthers got their first all-out in the eighth minute to secure a 9-point lead. The Pirates had a terrible day in defence with their defenders Sajin C and Neeraj Kumar picking up no points in the entire match.
There was no holding back as Panthers continued their sheer domination in the second half with Deshwal picking up easy points against the Pirates defence. His two-point raid in the 7th minute after the break gave Panthers another all-out to increase the lead to 19 points. The Panthers defence had a night to remember as Sandeep Dhull hit his high five.
For Panthers, their star raider Arjun Deshwal scored 17 points and Deepak Hooda bagged eight points. Defenders Sandeep Dhull and Vishal also picked up high fives. For Pirates, on the other hand, Guman Singh scored 10 points as Sachin and Manu Goyat scored seven points each. The men in pink had a 20-point lead with five minutes remaining.
The southern derby
In the second match of the night, Thalaivas clinched the southern Derby as they beat Bulls 42-24.
Bulls went into the southern derby with a 7-0 win/loss ratio. They even started well this time as they controlled the early minutes of the first half. The scores were 6-6 after 10 minutes but the Tamil team switched gears to pull the game away from Bulls.
The team from Chennai inflicted their first all-out in the 13th minute to open a 5-point lead. Ajinkya Pawar helped Thalaivas open a bigger lead and eventually secure another all-out with two minutes remaining. At the interval the Thalaivas were leading 21-8.
Tamil Thalaivas continued to control the match in the second half as well. Thalaivas got their third all-out with 9 minutes remaining to earn a 20-point lead.
For the Tamil team Ajinkya scored a super 10 and his raiding partner Manjeet bagged eight points. Their defenders had a great night too with Sagar picking up a high five. For the Bulls, Pawan Kumar top-scored with nine points as Bharat and Chandran Ranjit scalped five points.
