Tamil Thalaivas produced a terrific first half performance to beat Patna Pirates 40-37 in the Pro Kabaddi League Season at Pune on Saturday. Pardeep Narwal scored 20 points for the Pirates but his efforts went in vain. Ajay Thakur scored 14 points for the Thalaivas and made crucial raids for his team. K Prapanjan also played his part, bagging 11 points.
Thalaivas flew off the blocks and inflicted an all-out in the fifth minute to capture a big lead with the score 9-2 in their favour. Thakur was in fine form with his raids as side marched to a 12-point lead in the 10th minute. The Pirates were in tatters as Thalaivas inflicted another all-out in the 15th minute to lead 25-11.
Trailing by a whopping 17 points with the score at 12-29 at the interval, the Pirates began the second half strongly as they picked up five points in the first four minutes. The reigning champions bounced back with an all-out of their own and reduced the deficit to seven points.
Narwal and Monu Goyat’s onslaught kept Thalaivas on their toes but the Pirates fell narrowly short of completing an astounding late comeback.
Pune bounce back in style
Deepak Hooda’s amassed 15 points as Puneri Paltan once again got the better of U Mumba in the Maharashtra derby, demolishing their opponents to win by a comprehensive 43-24 margin.
Girish Maruti Ernak gave his captain good support and scored seven points. The two teams have faced each other thrice this season with each of the games going in favour of Paltan. The home side had succumbed to a heavy defeat against the high flying Gujarat Fortunegiants earlier in the week.
It was the former champions who jumped to an early lead here but Anup Kumar and Shrikant Jadhav were unable to make their presence felt throughout the game. Rajesh Mondal who set the tone for Pune, whose defenders soon seized control over the contest. Hooda, after a cautious start, found his feet and helped his side earn a slender lead at half-time, where the score was 19-11 in favour of Pune.
Pune ran their opponents ragged on the other side of the interval, and inflicted two all-outs, which shut out all hopes of a Mumbai comeback.