Pune: Hosts Puneri Paltan led by their lion hearted all-rounder Manjeet Chhillar pulled off yet another draw when they tied 32-32 with former champions Jaipur Pink Panthers who gave an improved performance today at the Shree Chhatrapati Shivaji Sports Complex.

Manning the crucial left corner he came up with six tackle points and another six from his precisely calculated raids for a tally of dozen points. He had admirable support from Ajay Thakur who garnered 11 raid points, six of them coming in the first half to keep his side in the hunt. Ajay exuded a lot of confidence getting his hand touches going.

Sonu Narwal was back in form for the Jaipur side and with Rajesh Narwal performing as usual they overcame the loss of the injured Jasvir Singh and Rohit Rana. The benching of Navneet Gautam for Gangadhari Mallesh and shifting of Ran Singh to the left corner also helped the Jaipur team.

The result leaves Jaipur Pink Pirates still occupying the fifth spot with 14 points in six matches in the Season 3 of the Star Sports Pro Kabaddi. The hosts have taken their tally to 13 points with two matches in hand.

The first half saw the Jaipur Pink Panthers lead 21-18 after inflicting an all-out over their rivals in the 6th minute. At 3-9 the Puneri Paltan had to pull out something special and both Manjeet and Ajay rose to the challenge. Manjeet came up with a super raid of three points and Ajay kept the score ticking with his deft hand touches. For the Panthers it was the ability of the tall Sonu Narwal and the stocky Rajesh to draw mistakes from the rival defence paid rich dividends.

The deadly Rajesh in fact had two super raids to his credit. Sonu had one super raid in his tally of seven points at the break.

After resumption it was a neck to neck affair. Puneri Paltan kept within striking distance and finally equalized in the 36th minute at 31-31. When Prashant Chavan got his first tackle point on Rajesh Narwal. Till then Ajay Thakur had a string of raids that yielded his team four points. Surendra Singh, the third raider contributed their bonus points to the tally. Rajesh and Sonu both upped their tally to end with 10 and 9 points respectively.

But the show stealer was Manjeet with his astute leadership and humongous all-round show. For the Jaipur side Ran Singh was impressive with his all-round show. He had a super raid at a time when the teams were tied 27-27 but the two tackles by Manjeet on Iranian Mohammad Maghsoudlou clinched for his side crucial points to force a creditable draw.