Patna Pirates registered their first win of the Mumbai leg of the season five of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) as they trounced a lacklustre Tamil Thalaivas 35-24 in Mumbai this evening. Patna, who drew with Bengal Warriors 36-36 last night, came from behind to post a convincing win. They were trailing Thalaivas 1-4 after the first four minutes.
It was Patna's fourth win in the tournament in seven games. The loss, a fourth for the southern side, meant that they continued to languish at the bottom of the table in Zone B. Patna inflicted two all outs, one in each half, on the opposition in their 11-point win.
Patna's Monu Goyat (11 points) was the chief architect of their win and he was ably aided by Jaideep (5 points) who scored most tackle points.
An unsuccessful raid by Patna skipper Pardeep Narwal gave Thalaivas the opening points of the game. Thalaivas skipper Ajay Thakur (10 points in the match) followed it up by picking up a successful raid.
Later, the Tamil defence captured Narwal and Goyat in subsequent raids to give the Chennai team a 4-1 lead after four minutes.
But a determined Patna bounced back in style and did an all out of their opposition. And later, a successful raid by Narwal in the last minute of the first half gave them two crucial points to make it 16-9 in their favour at the half-way mark.
In the second half, Patna continued to extend their lead and with 10 minutes for the final whistle, Patna led 23-16. Then a super raid by Goyat in the 32nd minute gave Patna their second all out of the match as their lead zoomed to 28-16. The northern side continued in that form to register a comfortable win.
The Patna defence was up to the mark as well, ensuring most raids by the opposition team were unsuccessful.
