Pune
Thanks to the excellent performance of Ayan (13), Devank (12), and defender Shubham Shinde (5), Patna Pirates defeated Tamil Thalaivas 42-38 in the 109th match of the 11th season of Pro Kabaddi League played at the Badminton Hall of Balewadi Sports Complex. Patna achieved 11th win in 18 matches while Moin Despite the commendable performance of Shafaghi (11) and Sachin (8), Thalaivas suffered their 11th defeat in 18 matches. With this, Thalaivas’s hopes of going to the playoffs have been dealt a blow. When Patna were on the verge of all out, giving bonus to Ayan proved costly for Thalaivas.
However, three-time champions Patna got off to a good start and took a 5-2 lead in three minutes. However, as the fifth minute passed, Thalaivas made a comeback and made the score 5-6. After this, Himanshu leveled the score by hunting Shubham. Patna did not get a single tackle point in the first 8 minutes, yet they were ahead by 9-7.
Meanwhile, Devank not only made the score 11-7 with a multi-pointer but also made a super tackle for Thalaivas. Even on the subsequent raid, Devank brought Thalaivas to the brink of all out by scoring two points. Sachin came and was caught. In this way Patna took the lead of 16-9. After the break, Patna caught Shafagi and Thalaivas gave a big blow to Patna by hunting Ayan and Devank. By the end of 15 minutes, Thalaivas had made a comeback with a score of 12-17. After this, Patna took two consecutive points but Sachin leveled the matter with a multi-pointer. Patna was leading 20-15 till halftime.
After halftime, Thalaivas took one point and Deepak put Patna ahead 23-16 with a super raid. Meanwhile, in a super tackle situation, Devank made the score 26-18 with a super raid. However, Sachin avoided all out and then Sahil made a super tackle on Devank and made the score 20-26. Then Sachin took two points on the do or die raid and reduced the gap to 4. Meanwhile, Sachin scored another point in defense of four. Super tackle was on for Patna and Shubham caught Himanshu making the score 29-24. Shafaghi dismissed Shubham on the next raid. After 30 minutes, Patna was leading 29-25. Pirates were on the verge of all out after the break but Ayaan saved it with two points on two occasions. However, he was caught in the third attempt. Now the score was 31-35. Devank and Ayaan had completed Super-10. After the all-in, Patna maintained the lead of five with three points against two.
After this, Thalaivas reduced the gap to 3 by scoring two consecutive points. However, Patna did not give him a chance to make a comeback and reduced his lead to five. During this time, Shubham’s Hi-5 was also completed. Ultimately, Patna maintained the gap of four points and took second place with a good win.
