The Patna Pirates continued their winning form on Monday as they beat home side UP Yoddhas 48-41 while Puneri Paltan romped to a 54-18 win over the Telugu Titans in the Pro Kabaddi League at the Noida Indoor Stadium.
Raider Sachin scored 10 points (in addition to his two tackle points) while captain Neeraj Kumar’s five-point haul helped Pirate to victory despite a fighting season-best 21 points from league legend and UP Yoddhas skipper Pardeep Narwal against his former team.
The home side were pegged back by the Patna Pirates early in the game as the team from Bihar got the UP Yoddhas all out in the first 10 minutes of the match. This gave them an eight-point lead after the Pirates took advantage of multiple unsuccessful raids by the side from Uttar Pradesh.
All eyes were on leading PKL raider Narwal, with the fan favourite starting the match on a positive note, getting a couple of successful raids. For the Patna-based side, it was their raider Sachin fetching a majority of the points and racing to eight raid points in the first half. But his run was stopped beautifully by the Yoddhas’ defenders who were slowly clawing their way back into the game after a super tackle from substitute Shivam Chaudhary.
This was not enough to hold back the Pirates, who had a comfortable 12-point lead heading into half-time after a late all out against the Yoddhas, their second of the match in the first half.
The second half started with a bang for the home team as Narwal displayed why he is one of the best raiders in the league. He eliminated three of the opponent’s defenders — Ankit, Manish and Sudhakar M — to complete an exhilarating super raid, as well as his SUPER 10 with one swift move.
The Pirates, led by veteran defender Neeraj Kumar, were off guard in the first five minutes of the second half. They found their feet in the game after Kumar got Narwal to win a super tackle, and then Manjeet joined the party in a do-or-die raid, with Nitesh Kumar, Vijay Malik, and Sumit finding themselves off the mat.
Manjeet struck once again soon after, as the Yoddhas were caught all out for the third time in the match and the Pirates began taking an unassailable lead in the game. This did not stop Sachin’s rampage, with his all-round performance taking all the attention by the end of the match. The Yoddhas getting the Pirates all out in the final two minutes of the clash did not do much, with the Patna-based team eventually securing a seven-point victory over their rivals.
Paltan thump Titans
Puneri Paltan produced a kabaddi masterclass as they defeated bottom-placed Telugu Titans by a whopping 36 points. Mohit Goyat was the star performer in Puneri Paltan’s win, while Abinesh Nadarajan and Gaurav Khatri won five points each.
The Titans were bolstered by captain Pawan Sehrawat’s return to the team, but he was tackled within eight seconds of the start of the game. The Paltan banked on their defence as Abinesh and Iran’s Mohammadreza Shadloui kept the opposition at bay. The Titans’ raiders found little success as the side trailed 6-7 mid-way into the opening half.
The Titans did well to stay within touching distance, but were completely undone by a series of three raids. It began with a super raid from Mohit that saw Pawan, Hamid Nader and Nitin off to the bench and the next raid saw Shadloui trap Robin Chaudhary in an ankle hold. The third raid was a mere formality as Prafull Zaware surrendered to Aslam Inamdar and Puneri Paltan inflicted the first all out. Their lead grew to seven points at 16-9.
Sehrawat’s men managed just one point in the last five minutes as Puneri Paltan ended the first half leading 23-10. There was more trouble in store for the Titans as they faced an all out in the very first minute of the second half and the gap between the teams grew further.
The Paltan seized complete control of the game as Abinesh dished out tackles at will, while Aslam and Mohit offered the Telugu Titans defence no respite. Pawan was off-colour through the game and the Titans were on the receiving end of another all out right after Shadlou executed a strong dash to deny Pawan. Mohit swept through the Titans’ defenders and Puneri Paltan led by a mammoth 28 points at 39-11 with 10 minutes left.
The Paltan put on a masterclass as they went on to inflict a fourth all out five minutes later. Mohit won points in raid and defence as the scoreline read 48-13, with the men in orange leading by 35 points. Puneri Paltan went on to give their bench a chance and Aditya Shinde gave a good account of himself as his side wrapped up a massive win.
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