Patna Pirates crush U Mumba; Telugu Titans go top after beating Bengaluru Bulls
Patna Pirates continues their dream start to Star Sports Pro Kabaddi Season Three as they stunned defending Champions U Mumba 40-26 on the final day of the Bengaluru leg to move to the second spot in the points table. In the second game of the day hosts Bengaluru Bulls fell to a 26-35 defeat at the hands of their southern rival Telugu Titans. The win took Telugu Titans back to the top of the Pro Kabaddi League charts.
U Mumba 26-40 Patna Pirates
The game got off to a flying start when U Mumba skipper Anup Kumar scored a super raid in just the second raid of the game to have U Mumba 3-1 up. But the Patna Pirates turned the tables on U Mumba in the 4th minute when Rajesh Mondal pulled off a four-point super raid in a do or die raid to get Patna Pirates 5-3 up. The game was neck and neck after U Mumba fought back into the scheme of things with a super tackle, but Pardeep Narwal’s two-point raid in the 11th minute once again had Patna Pirates in the lead at 9-8.
Pardeep’s Narwal’s successful raid triggered U Mumba’s downfall as the Pirates forced an all-out on the defending champions a minute later. With a healthy five-point lead, Patna Pirates’ defence came to the party and captured Anup Kumar, Rishank Devadiga and their former skipper Rakesh Kumar twice in the next eight minutes, before a two-point raid from Pardeep Narwal helped the Pirates to a 20-11 lead at the interval.
The depleted U Mumba side was cleaned up for the second time in the contest early on in the second half by the Pirates to extend their lead to twelve points. The Sandeep Narwal led Patna Pirates defence was uncompromising once again as the got Anup Kumar out of the court in the 22nd minute, before Pardeep Narwal and Rajesh Mondal continued to chip away points from the disjointed looking U Mumba defence to give Patna Pirates a fourteen-point lead with ten minutes to go.
A frustrated Anup Kumar was shown a yellow card as the evening went from bad to worse for the champions as Patna Pirates’ capture of Rakesh Kumar in the 33rd minute all but ended the game as a contest. Pardeep Narwal and Rajesh Mondal were to make more damage with two late successful raids late in the game as the game ended 40-26 in Patna Pitates’ favour.
Bengaluru Bulls 26-35 Telugu Titans
The South Indian derby got off to a very tight start as both teams were level at 5-5 in the first ten minutes. But Rahul Chaudhari’s inspired raiding performance that saw him claim four raid points forced an all-out on the home side as the Telugu Titans raced into a 14-7 lead in the 16th minute.
Then came a complete moment of madness from the Bengaluru Bulls’ raider Amit Rathi who had already received a yellow card in the 2nd minute of the game. After his raid was curtailed by Rahul Chaudhari, Amit Rathi kicked out at his opponent to leave the referee no option but to show him a red card.
Despite the numerical disadvantage the Bengaluru Bulls reduced the deficit to six points, trailing 14-20 to the Titans at a point in the second half, but Rahul Chaudhari’s brilliance meant the Bulls were always left chasing their opponents. A super tackle on Surjeet Narwal late on in the game sealed the win for the Titans as they went top of the table with their first ever win over the Bengaluru Bulls.