PKL Season 6, Match 36: Fazel and Siddharth down the Patna Pirates in a thrilling down-to-the-wire contest
Vikas Jaglan was sent into Patna's Do-or-Die raid with the score level at 38 apiece, the clock showed just 47 seconds left in the match, heartrates of all the players on the mat and the people watching the game were through the roof. Vikas, a left raider, focussed on the right corner to try and take a bonus under the nose of the Dharmaraj Cheralathan, but as soon as he went in for the bonus, Surender Singh and Fazel Atrachali pounced on him as if their lives depended on it, and stopped Vikas in his tracks to take the score to 39-38 in favour of U Mumba.
Now it was U Mumba's turn to raid and they looked to their most trusted and successful raider, Siddharth Desai to just cross the balk line, and utilize all 30-seconds on the clock to take U Mumba to a win. But as soon as Siddharth entered the opposition's half, Jaideep, the Pirates left corner, made a silly error and gave away a free touch point to Siddharth within 7 seconds into his raid.
The score was 40-38, U Mumba was 2 points clear and all set for a win. With a mere 6 seconds remaining on the clock, the Pirates sent in Vijay for a final and decisive raid to get them at least the 2 points to tie the match. Vijay went in but was met with Fazel Atrachali, U Mumba's captain at the half line standing strong with the rest of his team behind him, he was in no mood of giving more than a point to Vijay, he pushed Vijay into his own half as the clock ran down.
The umpires whistled to indicate the end of the match, and U Mumba won the match with a great comeback at the 11th hour. The scoreline read 40-39 in favour of U Mumba who had managed to clinch the thriller with some great performances and smart on-the-toes thinking.
Siddharth Desai was no doubt the star of the match with his 15 points, but so was Fazel Atrachali who kept his calm and composure to sacrifice himself and give away just a single point in Patna's final raid to clinch the encounter in his team's favour.
Fazel was astounding, especially in the second half of the match, as he got yet another High-5 with a total of 6 tackle points, including a Super-tackle.
The Pirates managed to do everything right till the 38th minute of the match, after that, they lost their composure as inexperience crept in their actions and they gave away a match that had been theirs.
Pardeep Narwal, the Pirates' captain, was again on fire with his 17 raid points and almost single-handedly contributed to his team's raiding score. It was his absence on the mat that led his team disarray in the final minutes.
Jaideep was the top defender for the Pirates with his 5 tackle points.
The Pirates need an experienced campaigner amongst their ranks or a player has to step up and take responsibility for the matters in such tight situations in the absence of Pardeep. The lack of a second-in-command to Pardeep led them to their ruins yesterday evening and would pose a problem for them moving ahead.
The Pirates will be next seen in action against the Haryana Steelers today evening at 9 pm IST, while U Mumba will feature against their familiar opponents, Puneri Paltan on Saturday, the 3rd in Greater Noida.