Pro Kabaddi 2018 League, Match 42: Patna Pirates vs Bengaluru Bulls Review | 31 October, 2018

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Manjeet during a raid attempt. [Picture Courtesy: ProKabaddi.com]

After losing to Telugu Titans in the last match and on the brink of a 4th consecutive loss on their home ground, the Patna Pirates need to buckle up as they have a point to prove. Patna will be faced off against Bengaluru Bulls tonight, who have Pawan Sehrawat with 97% raid strikes rate against Pardeep Narwal, the star raider of the home turf. Eventhough Bengaluru Bulls have not able to beat Patna Pirates since season 2, this game had all the ingredients to be a cracker of a contest.

Starting 7

Patna Pirates – Deepak Narwal, Manjeet, Pardeep Narwal, Kuldeep Singh, Jaideep, Vikas Kale, Ravinder Kumar.

Bengaluru Bulls – Kashling Adake, Pawan Sehrawat, Rohit Kumar, Mahender Singh, Ashish Sangwan, Jasmer Gulia, Sandeep

Substitutes used:

Vijay and Manish from Patna Pirates. Sumit Singh, Ajay and Ankit from Bengaluru Bulls

Toss:

Bengaluru Bulls won the toss and chose the court.

Pardeep Narwal, who is Patna Pirate’s lead raider opened his account in the very 1st raid of the match. Bengaluru Bulls charged themselves up since the beginning of the game by sending Pardeep on the bench in his very next raid. Pawan, the star raider from Bengaluru Bulls took 2 points on Kuldeep and Ravinder bringing the score to 2-4, in favour of the Bulls. 

Trying to cover up for the injured Pardeep Narwal, on the home ground, Patna Pirates' defence had picked up the pace in this match and this could be seen by how Vikas Kale tackled Pawan during his raid and levelled the score to 4-all. 

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Pawan Sehrawat in a raid. [Picture Courtesy: ProKabaddi.com]

With 8 minutes before half time, the Patna team came together to super tackle the Bengaluru Bulls captain, Rohit Kumar, bringing the Bulls down to only 2 men on the court. The Bengaluru Bulls in a desperate move to step up their game tried to catch Manjeet in a super tackle attempt but failed. The in-form Manjeet took a raid point on Kashling Adake leaving only 1 person on the mat for Bengaluru Bulls.

With just 3 minutes remaining on the clock before half time, the substitute Sumit, a good raider in the Bengaluru team, was tackled by the Pirates inflicting the 1st all-out of the night for Bengaluru Bulls and giving away 3 points to the home team to come in lead with a score 18-17. 

After the Bulls reunited on the ground, Pawan was dashed out during his raid and sent to bench again. At half time, the score read 21-18, with the home team leading the game.

After the restart, Pawan Sherawat, the lead raider from Bengaluru Bulls started taking points for his team. In his third raid, he showed great athleticism by using the leverage of his shoulders and jumping up to a height of 6.5 feet to take a point for his team and getting a Super-10 for himself.  

Meanwhile, the Pirates started to worry a bit as Pradeep was not able to give his 100% to the team and Kuldeep also got a green card for excessive chatter on the mat. However, the home team had still managed to somehow maintain a score difference of 3 points.

Pardeep Narwal trying to take a raid point. [Picture Courtesy: ProKabaddi.com]

But, as if all of a sudden, it got too hot to handle the raging Bengaluru Bulls. Bengaluru Bulls scored 11 points in just 5 minutes, to change the game in their favour. A Toofani Super raid by the Captain of Bengaluru Bulls, Rohit Kumar equalized the score to 26-all and then, the star raider, Pawan Sehrawat took 5 points for Bengaluru Bulls by wiping out the defence and inflicting the 1st all-out on Patna Pirates.

With 10 minutes remaining on the clock, the score read 26-32 in the favour of the Bulls. The relatively young players, with their 1st match- Ajay and Ankit from Bengaluru Bulls were performing a stellar job as covers on the mat.

But Patna didn’t lose hope. A Toofani Super raid by Manjeet brought the score to a 5-point difference and soon completed his Super 10, bringing the score to 36-all. 

With 5 minutes remaining, the confident Pawan came in with another Toofani Super Raid to take back the lead. Patna reviewed and was judged against the favour. It was a rough night for the Pirates as their talismanic captain, Pardeep Narwal was tackled again and sent on the bench.

Bengaluru Bulls then strategized to play a rather slow game, taking up all the time available in the match. With less than 3 minutes left, Rohit Kumar got a yellow card from the Umpire for aggressive tackling. In Rohit’s absence from the court, Patna seized the opportunity by attempting a super tackle on Pawan Sehrawat and Kashling, bringing the score to 41-all.

With just 60 seconds on the clock, Patna Pirates coach, desperate to take the winning game home, got a green card for coaching on the court. While Patna could’ve really won the match, the match ended with a score of 41-43, in favour of the Bulls. The last couple of raids under the immense pressure shifted the pendulum in the favour of the Rohit Kumar led side. 

Rohit Kumar trying to take a point. [Picture Courtesy: ProKabaddi.com]

Patna was unlucky, and this defeat has caused some serious damage to their playoff hopes. The Pirates, who are 3-time defending champions need to raise their game as soon as possible before it’s too late. It was the 1st time since Season 2, that Bengaluru Bulls were finally able to defeat the Patna Pirates. This Bengaluru side looked in red-hot form after winning their 4th game in 5 matches. They have a plethora of raiding options and would look ahead to consolidate their position at the top of the Zone B table.

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