PKL 2019: Gujarat Fortunegiants edge past Patna Pirates 29-26
Gujarat Fortunegiants snapped a six-match losing streak in the Pro Kabaddi League Season 7, with a narrow 29-26 win over Patna Pirates at the Nehru indoor stadium on Friday.
In the second match of the night, U Mumba defeated Tamil Thalaivas 29-24, ensuring that the latter finished the home leg without a win (with only a tie game to show). U Mumba jumped to fourth in the points table with the win while Thalaivas slipped to eighth.
Jaipur Pink Panthers sit on top of the table with 7 wins from nine matches for 36 points followed by Bengal Warriors and Delhi Dabang KC.
In the Fortungiants-Pirates encounter, Rohit Gulia's Super 10 (10 raid points) turned out to be the gamechanger as Pardeep Narwal's early heroics went in vain.
The match began with Narwal taking out Ruturaj Koravi in the opening raid of the game before Fortunegiants' Rohit Gulia responded with a two-point raid.
However, Patna Pirates took control Narwal lived up to his 'dubki king' tag to effect a three-point super raid. Patna Pirates continued riding on the momentum they
gathered to inflict an All-Out in the next minute as the scoreline read 10-3.
Fortunegiants found a way back as a result of some resolute defence and silly errors from the opposition. The margin came down with Patna Pirates having a four-point lead at half-time.
In the second half, Fortunegiants bounced back by inflicting an All-Out to go into the lead. GB More extended it further when he got Mohammad Maghsoudlou and Neeraj Kumar in a single raid.
Patna Pirates, however, refused to give up as a Super Raid from Monu and subsequent successful tackles from Hadi Oshtorak meant scores were level at 22-all.
Rohit Gulia's two-point raid later saw Gujarat Fortunegiants having a three-point lead as they looked to close out the match by winding down the clock.
In the final minute of the match, Patna Pirates' Mohammad Maghsoudlou raided Parvesh Bhainswal but it proved to be too little too late as Gujarat Fortunegiants won the tie.
