Pro Kabaddi 2018: Patna Pirates pip UP Yoddha, Puneri Paltan hammer Haryana Steelers

Patna Pirates overcame a sluggish start to record a comfortable 43-37 victory over UP Yoddha in the Pro Kabaddi League here on Sunday. Pardeep Narwal scored 14 points to be the star raider once again but it was the Patna defence that laid down the foundations of this win. Shrikant Jadhav got 17 points for UP Yoddha and Rishank Devadiga scored 11 but their efforts went in vain.

Rishank Devadia scored with two consecutive raids as UP Yoddha led 3-1 after three minutes. UP Yoddha sent Pardeep Narwal to the bench in the fourth minute and reduced Patna Pirates to just four men. Patna Pirates averted an all out in the fifth minute as they forced a super tackle to trail 3-6. Another super tackle in the 8th minute by Patna Pirates levelled the match at 7-7.

Pardeep opened his account to give Patna Pirates the lead for the first time in the match in the 9th minute. Manjeet scored with a two-point raid in the 13th minute to give Patna Pirates an 11-9 lead.

In the 14th minute, Patna Pirates inflicted the first all out of the match to lead 16-10. A super raid right at the stroke of half time by Shreekant got UP Yoddha back in the match as they trailed 17-19.

Deepak Narwal came up with a super raid as Patna Pirates avoided an all out in the 22nd minute and led 23-18. Shrikant Jadhav responded with a super raid of his own as UP Yoddha forced inflicted an all out to level the match at 24-24 in the 24th minute.

Pardeep scored with a super raid in the 27th minute as Patna led 29-26.

In the last ten minutes of the match, Devadiga tried to get UP back in the match with a slew of raid points. With just over three minutes left, Patna Pirates led 39-34. Deepak scored a raid point in the 39th minute as Patna Pirates led 42-35 and wrapped up the match in the next minute with a tackle point.

Puneri Paltan hammer Haryana Steelers 45-27

Puneri Paltan climbed to the top of Zone A table in with a resounding 45-27 win over Haryana Steelers. Haryana Steelers’ poor defensive performance was the main reason for their second consecutive defeat. Vikas Kandola put a solid all-round performance for Haryana Steelers and scored 11 points. Nitin Tomar got 10 points whereas Rajesh Mondal chipped in with 8 points to lead Puneri Paltan to a comfortable win.

It was an evenly contested affair in the first few minutes of the match as both teams were tied at 5-5 after seven minutes. Puneri Paltan then shifted gears with Nitin Tomar getting into the act. Tomar scored three points in two raids as Puneri Paltan inflicted an all out to lead 13-7 after 12 minutes.

Rajesh Mondal then scored with a two-point raid to give Puneri Paltan 15-10 lead after 15 minutes. Haryana’s star man Monu Goyat had a quiet first half which affected the team’s performance. At the end of the first half Puneri Paltan enjoyed an eight-point lead with the score 19-11 in their favour.

Vikas Kandola made a super raid in the 30th minute as Haryana Steelers cut the deficit to 20-31. Puneri Palta were in no mood to surrender any advantage as they pocked tackle and raid points at regular intervals. With just over five minutes left Puneri Paltan led 34-23.

Puneri Paltan were exemplary in both attack and defence. While Haryana Steelers scored 20 raid points compared to Pune’s 21, it was the tackle points which let them down. Puneri Paltan scored 16 tackle points wheres Haryana scored just four.

In the last five minutes, Puneri Paltan kept their composure and kept on picking raid and tackle points. Haryana left themselves a mountain to climb and eventually fell short as they crashed to 27-45 defeat.