Patna Pirates begin their title defence emphatically
Looking to record a third successive win, the impressive PuneriPaltanwere brought down to earth by defending champions Patna Pirates. Surjeet Singh scored seven raid points and FazelAtrachali marshaled the defenceimpecabbly as Patna Pirates produced an excellent all-round performance to record their first win of the fourth season of Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League.
PuneriPaltan remain top of the league with 11 points after three games but couldn’t break their jinx against the Patna Pirates.
This encounter has a history of close games with two ties in the third season and this match was no different as both teams started cautiously. For the Pirates, Surjeet Singh scored four points with his first five raids. With less than two minutes to go, PradeepNarwal came up with do-or-die raid and the Pirates followed it with an all out in the next minute to ensure they went into the break with a six point lead with the score 16-10. Ajay Thakur, who put in a marvelous performance against U Mumba on Sunday, started slowly as he couldn’t score any point in the first half. Even ManjeetChhillar, their captain and go-to man for PuneriPaltan couldn’t score a single point in the first half.
Chhillar and PuneriPaltanbegan the second half brightly. Pune skipper opened his account with his first tackle and raid in the second half. NitinTomar scored with a do-or-die raid in the sixth minute as Chhillar got another point with a tackle as Puneri reduced the deficit to a single point. But the Pirates showed why they’re defending champions and inflicted a super tackle and super raid in the next two minutes to restore their six-point lead to 22-16. With five minutes left on the clock, NitinTomar scored two bonus points as they cut Pirates’s lead to two points.
PuneriPaltan’sdefence let them down as they missed several opportunities to force a super tackle. With less than four minutes to go, Pirates inflicted an all out to lead 29-21. PuneriPaltan salvaged a point in the last three minutes as they reduced the deficit to six points. But it was Patna Pirates who continued their unbeaten run over PuneriPaltan and produced a clinical performance to win the game 30-24.
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