Pro Kabaddi League 2018: Top 5 defenders from the Patna leg
The defending Pro Kabaddi League champions Patna Pirates finished their home leg in Patna on a positive note after overcoming the Bengal Warriors in a last-minute thriller on the final day at the Patliputra Sports Complex in Patna. The win brought an end to a streak of four losses on the trot in front of the home crowd.
The Pirates had started off their home leg with an imposing win over the Season 1 champions Jaipur Pink Panthers with a 41-30 scoreline. However, post this win, all things went downhill as the losses piled on for the Patna Pirates on their home turf. Two of their losses were close ones against U Mumba and Bengaluru Bulls but they were dominated by the Rahul Chaudhari's Telugu Titans in a 53-32 loss. The other loss came against a Haryana Steelers side who were without their captain Monu Goyat with a 32-43 scoreline.
To make matters worse for the Patna Pirates, their star raider Pardeep Narwal suffered a wrist injury that saw him lose his consistency in two matches and ultimately was benched for the last match of the home leg.
The defence of the Patna Pirates was marshalled by the impressive Jaideep at the left corner who was fairly consistent in the backline and finished with a 'High 5' on the night against the Bengal Warriors. With that feat, Jaideep currently leads the scoreboard for the highest number of tackle points this season with 33 points in ten matches played.
There were a considerable amount of good performances at the Patliputra Sports Complex and we take a look at the top five defenders from the Patna leg.
#5 Ruturaj Shivaji Koravi - Gujarat Fortunegiants
The defender was a pivotal figure in Maharashtra's victory in the Senior National Kabaddi Championships earlier this year and has fit in comfortably in Manpreet Singh's Gujarat Fortunegiants setup.
He took the place of Abozar Mighani at the right corner from last year and tried his best to produce the level of performance that the Iranian did. Ruturaj Shivaji Koravi scored seven tackle points in Gujarat's two matches against the Tamil Thalaivas and Puneri Paltan, and helped the side maintain their winning form. He was always a danger on the right corner for the raiders and also combined well with his fellow corner defender Sachin Vittala to produce the tackle points for Gujarat.
Tackle Points - 7 points in 2 matches