Since the last season of Star Sports Pro Kabaddi, young raider Pardeep Narwal has been a revelation for the green-and-yellow brigade. His speed, alertness and presence of mind were instrumental in propelling the Pirates to their first ever title in Season 3. Not only that, he also finished at the top of the raiders’ leaderboard with a humongous 116 raid points.
Naturally, the 19-year-old is an asset and the Patna team looks up to him in every match. After a couple of matches, where the youngster could not impress that much, Pardeep was once again back to form against the Bengal Warriors at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata on Sunday and helped to inflict a 33-27 defeat on the hosts.
“Pardeep Narwal was the game-changer”
What was even more noteworthy was that Pardeep could not score any point for his team in the first half which resulted in the visitors trailing 10-12 at half-time. But in the second half, he became the devastating raider that we all know. With two consecutive super raids, he changed the course of the match and almost single-handedly snatched the win from the Warriors.
With a total of 9 points, he was the top-scorer for his team and, as expected, the entire team management was all too happy to see him back to his very best once again.
Manager Kartik Sansanwal admitted: “Definitely, Pardeep was the game changer for us. It’s good to have him back in form. He was struggling a bit before this but now he is back to his very best.”
Coach Arjun Singh revealed that he had strategized to up the attacks towards the end and the efforts of the raiders were fruitful.
“I had faith in our defenders and wanted them not to leak a lot of points to the opponents. We were looking to up the intensity of our attacks towards the end and targeted the bonus points to keep the scoreboard ticking.“
“The initial deficit did not matter”
When asked what was going through their minds when Bengal was leading, Sansanwal said: “There was a difference of 1-2 points in the initial stages. We knew we would be able to overcome the deficit if we kept on playing with determination and that’s what we did.”
With eight wins out of 10 matches, they are sitting pretty at the top of the table now. There’s simply no stopping the defending champions. Do they think that with such staggering achievements, other teams are slightly intimidated by them?
Sansanwal agreed: “Today, the defense did make a few mistakes initially. The raiders saved us. We played the third game in four days. So, some fatigue had definitely set in. But yes, being the champions, there is some sort of intimidation factor working in our favour. And with Pardeep showing his superb talent once again, other teams surely have a bit of worry when they face us. Hopefully, that will help us till the end”.
“Will try to maintain our No. 1 position in the league”
The Pirates team management oozed a lot of confidence, especially after this comeback win. As of now, they look impenetrable in every department. If they can keep performing this way, the No. 1 position surely beckons again.
“There are still four matches to go and we will try to win them all. Last season we finished as the No. 1 team and our aim is to try and emulate that feat.”
The Pirates will be leaving the City of Joy today with this hope and will be making every effort to continue this winning streak against the Jaipur Pink Panthers in Mumbai on July 22.
