Patna Pirates, which had made the semifinals in the last two seasons, was off to a winning start in the third edition of the Pro Kabaddi League, pipping Jaipur Pink Panthers 29-28 in the last few seconds, at the Port indoor stadium here on Monday night.
Team effort saw the team gaining a slender lead at half time, and after some pulsating moments that thrilled the capacity crowd, the Patna team pulled off an exciting win, with D. Suresh Kumar catching Jasveer and the others converging on the rival raider to seal the match. The last five minutes of the match were more exciting.
A super-tackle took Jaipur to 24-27. Its raider Sonu Narwal was out but the team immediately made up for it when Patna’s Pradeep Narwal was declared cant-out with just three defenders on the court.
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Rajesh Narwal brought Jaipur a point off a raid and defender Rohit Rana was instrumental in catching Patna’s Rohit Kumar to tie the score at 28-all.
Jasveer who went for a raid to fetch the crucial point for Jaipur was caught, and the crowd broke into a loud cheer for Patna.
Patna Pirates led in the first half with their raiders and defenders performing well while on the other side only Jasveer was successful in raids.
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His efforts saw Jaipur even leading 8-7 at one point early on.
But Patna overtook Jaipur thanks to two super-tackles in which D. Suresh Kumar was involved, with help from Sunil and Tae Deok Eom.
Rohit Kumar, Pradip Malwal and Manpreet Singh also brought in points for the Pirates.
This is Jaipur Pink Panthers’s first loss in two matches.