Pro Kabaddi League: Patna Pirates beat Puneri Paltan 37-31

Puneri Paltan halting another successful raid from Rakesh Kumar

15 August 2014, Pune: Recovering from Dabang Delhi's emphatic performance, the packed stadium at the Balewadi Sports Complex cheered to welcome their homeboy heroes, the Puneri Paltan. With the previous night's catastrophic loss looming like a thundercloud over the home team, the crowd roared into action, hoping to coax a better performance from their Paltan.

The cards were once again stacked against them, not only in the form of the formidable Patna Pirates, but also through the injury of their skipper Wazir Singh. Defying all odds the Puneri skipper stepped forward but was soon substituted out in the first-half, surrendering to the pain.

A slow first 10 minutes saw the Patna Pirates come out relatively late, waiting till Pune had scored 4 points before Captain Rakesh Kumar scored the first touch with his distinguishing cartwheel escape. The Puneri Paltan continued to score through a number of successful tackles, but in the first of a match that would bring him many more opportunities, Patna's Sandeep Narwal scored 3 raid points in 2 consecutive raids.

After the rest of his team had helped pick off the Paltan defence down to just 3 players, Sandeep once again stepped out, this team earning a tremendous 5 points, taking out the entire remaining Pune team and bringing the score to 12-15, Patna leading.

The second half, however, saw a mounting Puneri comeback, as the Paltan defence was able to take out all three of Patna's star raiders – Rakesh, Sandeep, and Ravi Dalal. Decimated by the Puneri tackles and raids, it was not long until only one Patna player remained, a substituted Ram Kumar Sah.

Confidently stepping over to the Puneri side for a do-or-die raid that looked full of promise, Ram made a terrible blunder, losing his balance and stepping backwards out of bounds. This gave Pune an all-out and the lead with a score of 24-22.

Unfortunately for the home team though, the mounting comeback couldn’t be sustained. Quick to regain their lost footing, the Patna team brought the score back to a tie with a devastating one man tackle from Girish Ernak that knocked Pune's Mangesh Bhagat clear out of bounds. Followed by a 2 point raid from Rakesh, the Patna Pirates spent the last 10 minutes slowly cutting down the Puneri team, and as Manoj Kumar was folded in half by the Patna defence, it marked the end for the Paltan team.

An all-out put the score at 28-33, and with only 3 minutes remaining, there was little hope for a comeback. The one redemption to be found was a 2-point raid from Mangesh in the last few seconds, putting Pune within the 7-point differential needed for 1 point in the League standings.

The final scores were 31-37 in favour of Patna.