In front of their home fans for the first time this season, the Puneri Paltan threatened to win big against the Haryana Steelers. But the Haryana side fought back and eventually tied the Pro Kabaddi League Season 9 match 27-27 at the Shree Shivchhatrapati Sports Complex, Balewadi, Pune on Friday.

The Paltans made an explosive start with Mohit Goyat starting off with a Super Raid. A close review by the Paltans also worked out in their favour, as they had the momentum in their corner, playing at home for the first time this season. Midway through the first half, the Paltans were in control and had a slender 1-point lead, with both sides being watchful in their approach.

Cheered on by the home support, the Paltans raged on as Fazel Atrachali and co tackled emphatically, giving themselves a 3-point lead at 13-10 in the end of the first half.

Puneri started off the second half on the front foot, attaining an 8-point lead with an ALL OUT. Soon after though, the Steelers went through the gears, with Manjeet taking charge and Mohit chipping in too, cutting down the lead significantly midway through the second half.

The Steelers stayed in the hunt with Manjeet getting an ALL OUT, bringing the difference in points down to 2 in the 36th minute. Soon after Manjeet and Amirhossein Bastami brought the Steelers to level pegging, with just over a minute to go.

The final minutes of the game were riveting as both teams threw the kitchen sink at each other, but eventually the sides had to share the spoils with score at 27-27 at the final whistle.

Pirates edge out Yoddhas

Patna Pirates picked up their second win in the Pro Kabaddi League Season 9 at the Shree Shivchhatrapati Sports Complex, Balewadi in Pune after defeating UP Yoddhas 34-29 in the last game of the evening on Friday.

The two sides played out a neck and neck contest right from the start. The Pirates kicked off the action by picking up the first points of the match. This match-up was drawn to be a test of the Pirates’ defence against the Yoddhas’ raiding duo of Pardeep Narwal and Surender Gill. And to their credit, the Pirates defenders kept the duo silent through the first half allowing them barely any inroads on the attack. On almost every metric, the two teams were level, and going into the break, the Pirates led by a mere two points at 13-11.

After a fairly tepid first period, the game sparked to life four minutes into the second half, when Pirates’ raider Sachin effected consecutive successful raids to put the Yoddhas on the brink of an all out. Mohammadreza Shadloui Chiyaneh’s brilliant tackle on Gill gave them an easy chance to get one. They got the first ALL OUT of the game to extend their lead at 19-11.

That setback sparked the Yoddhas and in particular Narwal, to life. Within minutes, the PKL veteran had executed one of the raids of the season so far, his SUPER RAID catching out five Pirates players — Manish, Rohit Gulia, Chiyaneh, Sunil and Sachin to reduce them to one player on the mat. Soon enough the Yoddhas had an ALL OUT of their own and took the lead at 23-21.

The Pirates rallied from that shocking setback to seize control of the game again and had the Yoddhas cornered and bracing for another all out. Right on the brink, a SUPER TACKLE by Rohit Tomar on Sachin drew the teams level and set up a nervy final two minutes.

With barely 20 seconds left, on the second last raid of the night, on a DO OR DIE raid, with all to lose, Sachin pulled off a SUPER RAID and effected a second ALL OUT on the Yoddhas, to hand his team a hard-fought victory.

Thalaivas win big

The Tamil Thalaivas started their Pune leg with renewed energy and came out all guns blazing under their new Head coach Ashan Kumar in the Pro Kabaddi League Season 9 at the Shree Shivchhatrapati Sports Complex, Balewadi, Pune, on Friday. Narender put up a superb performance with 13 points in the match and helped the Thalaivas register a 38-27 victory over Jaipur Pink Panthers.

The Tamil Thalaivas got off to a stupendous start as they inflicted an ALL OUT in the 6th minute and took a massive lead at 12-1. V Ajith Kumar tried to fight back for the Panthers, but Thalaivas’ defender M Abishek stood tall as his team continued to extend their lead. The team from Tamil Nadu tackled Arjun Deshwal in the 14th minute and attained a 12-point lead at 17-5. The defenders were backed up brilliantly by Narender’s raids as the Thalaivas led at 20-8 in the end of the first half.

Narender tackled Sunil Kumar and helped the Tamil side inflict an ALL OUT in the opening minutes of the second half. Defender Himanshu also joined the party as the Thalaivas took a 16-point lead at 27-11 in the 28th minute. Deshwal effected a fantastic raid, but the Panthers couldn’t find a way to pick up points consistently. Narender continued to carry out raids as the Thalaivas dominated the match at 32-16 in the 35th minute. The Panthers inflicted an ALL OUT in the 37th minute, but the Tamil side still held a big lead at 32-23. The Thalaivas kept raging on and eventually closed out a comprehensive victory.