Patna Pirates overcame a sluggish start to record a narrow 43-37 victory over UP Yoddha in the Pro Kabaddi League in Sonepat on Sunday.
Pardeep Narwal scored 14 points to be the star raider once again but it was the Patna defence that laid down the foundation of this win. Shrikant Jadhav got 17 points for UP Yoddha and Rishank Devadiga scored 11 but their efforts went in vain.
Rishank Devadiga scored with two consecutive raids as UP Yoddha led 3-1 after three minutes. Yoddha sent Pardeep Narwal to the bench in the fourth minute and reduced Patna Pirates to just four men. Patna Pirates averted an all out in the fifth minute as they forced a super tackle to trail 3-6. Another super tackle in the 8th minute by Patna Pirates levelled scores at 7-7.
Pardeep opened his account to give Patna Pirates the lead for the first time in the match in the 9th minute. Manjeet scored with a two-point raid in the 13th minute to give Patna Pirates an 11-9 lead.
In the 14th minute, Patna Pirates inflicted the first all out of the match to lead 16-10. A super-raid right at the stroke of half time by Shreekant got Yoddha back in the match as they trailed 17-19.
Deepak Narwal came up with a super raid as Patna Pirates avoided an all out in the 22nd minute and led 23-18. Shrikant Jadhav responded with a super raid of his own as Yoddha forced inflicted an all out to level the match at 24-24 in the 24th minute. Pardeep scored with a super raid in the 27th minute as Patna led 29-26.
In the last ten minutes of the match, Devadiga tried to get Yoddha back in the match with a slew of raid points. With just over three minutes left, Patna Pirates led 39-34. Deepak scored a raid point in the 39th minute as Patna Pirates led 42-35 and wrapped up the match in the next minute with a tackle point.