Noida, Jan 2:
Patna Pirates continued their winning form with another victory as they beat home side UP Yoddhas 48-41 in their Pro Kabaddi League Season 10 clash at the Noida Indoor Stadium on Monday night.
The plaudits fell on the lap of raider Sachin and his brilliant Super 10 (in addition to his two tackle points), as well as their skipper Neeraj Kumar’s High 5, which was enough to take his team to victory despite a fighting season-best 21 points from league legend and U.P. Yoddhas skipper Pardeep Narwal against his former team.
The home side were pegged back by Patna Pirates early in the game as the team from Bihar got U.P. Yoddhas All out in the first 10 minutes of the match. This gave them an eight-point lead after the Pirates took advantage of multiple unsuccessful raids by the side from Uttar Pradesh.
All eyes were on leading PKL raider Pardeep Narwal, with the fan favourite starting the match on a positive note, getting a couple of successful raids as well.
For the Patna-based side, it was their raider Sachin fetching a majority of the points and racing to eight raid points in the first half. But his run was stopped beautifully by U.P. Yoddhas’ defenders who were slowly clawing their way back into the game after a Super Tackle from substitute Shivam Chaudhary.
This was not enough to hold back the Pirates, who had a comfortable 12-point lead heading into half-time after a late All out against the Yoddhas, their second of the match in the first half.
The second half started with a bang for the home team as Pardeep displayed why he is one of the best raiders in the league. He eliminated three of the opponent’s defenders – Ankit, Manish and Sudhakar M – to complete an exhilarating Super Raid, as well as his Super 10 with one swift move.
