Patna Pirates beat Bengal Warriors 33-27 in a nail-biting contest in the Pro Kabaddi League season 4. The win means they’re now at the top of the points table.
A resurgent Bengal Warriors faced Patna Pirates who seem to be showing no signs of slowing down. But with the Warriors playing on home turf, it wasn’t expected to be smooth sailing for the men in green.
The flying machine, Surjeet Singh began proceedings with an extended hand touch on Patna’s, Bajirao Hodage. Jang Kun Lee followed him to pick up another point as the home side took an early 2-0 lead.
Patna found themselves in a do or die raid early on. As expected, Rajesh Mondal delivered by taking out Lee to open the scoring for his side. His teammate, Pardeep Narwal couldn’t match him as he was sent to the bench after six minutes. The score read 4-3 to Bengal.
The Warriors defence was miserly. They made the Patna raiders work hard for their points. Kuldeep Singh then broke the cardinal rule and stopped chanting Kabaddi during his raid and gifted Bengal a point.
Monu Goyat was efficient for the Warriors with his do or die raids. Ensuring numbers on the mat for his side. Pardeep Narwal remained quiet for the entire first half. Both sides adopted a highly tactical approach.
The Pirates though were stealthy picking up tackle points. Monu then produced two stellar back to back, do or die raids. Taking out main men, Fazel Atrachali and Bajirao to end the half on a high.
HT- Bengal Warriors 12-10 Patna Pirates
Pardeep Narwal still hadn’t scored in this match. He tried adopting a different approach to break his deadlock. The star raider attempted to get bonus points. Something that we rarely see. Whatever he tried, he just wasn’t to break through.
At the other end, Bengal kept picking up quick bonus points and executed their combination tackles to perfection. They were now leading 15-11 after twenty-five minutes.
Fazel Atrachali seemed annoyed with Surjeet attempting to target him. The Iranian wasn’t used to such treatment. He answered by producing a beast of a tackle on the flying machine to reduce the deficit to just two points.
Pardeep Narwal finally opened his account courtesy a bonus point. It gave him confidence to pick up his first touch point in the very next raid. Fazel then bulldozed Lee out of the mat to give Patna a 17-16 lead. Patna looked back to their very best. How quickly the tides can turn in Kabaddi.
Monu single headedly kept the Bengal scorecard ticking. In a moment of brilliance, Pardeep Narwal then produced a super raid and put to bed any doubts about his form.
He followed it up with another monstrous four-point raid. Taking out two players and securing an additional two points for inflicting an all-out. Patna were now leading 25-19 with seven minutes to go.
The Pirates were now in the zone but Bengal were just holding on. It all changed when Patna captain, Dharmaraj took out Surjeet with a hard hitting tackle. The final minutes of the match were frantic with Bengal attempting a comeback.
With two minutes left, Patna were leading 29-24. Jang Kun Lee then reduced the deficit to three points with a two-point raid and the Pirates were down to just three men. But Fazal once again produced a huge tackle on Lee to put to bed any chance of a comeback
FT- Bengal Warriors 27-33 Patna Pirates
