Patna Pirates defeats Puneri Paltan by 26-43; become first to qualify for playoffs
After three bad seasons in the Pro Kabaddi League, Patna Pirates has made a remarkable comeback in the 8th season.
Defeating Puneri Paltan in their 18th game, they became the first team to qualify for the tournament’s knockout stage.
Patna was not the hot favorite for season 8. Especially after the departure of Pradeep Narwal, their star raider, nobody thought that they would be where they are today.
However, their young players have worked wonders in Pradeep’s absence. Guman Singh is one of those players who has shined for the three-time champions.
Guman had a great outing against Pune in the match earlier this evening. He completed a great super-10 and picked a total of 13 raid points.
Following him was another young raider named Sachin, who took six points. The rest of the work was done by the defenders of Patna.
They managed to pick 11 points in total. Shubham Shinde was the pick of a defender with 4 points to his name.
Puneri Paltan, on the other hand, had a bad day at the office. Despite performing well on several occasions this season, Paltan’s defense failed them when they needed it the most.
Their trio of Sanket Sawant, Vishal Bharadwaj, and Sombir managed to pick just five tackle points. Their defense made several errors earlier on in the game, which gifted points to Patna. Later even the raiders couldn’t manage to breach Patna’s defense.
As a result, Patna inflicted three all-outs on Paltan in the match. And the game ended at a score of 26-43 in the Pirate’s favor.
With four more matches to go, Patna will be hoping to continue their fantastic form. Their main target will be to remain in the top two positions. But considering their coach Ram Maher Singh’s aggression, Patna won’t be happy with anything less than the top spot on the table.
As things stand, Patna Pirates are on top of the table with 70 points from their 18 matches. They have point deference of 110, which is second to none this season.
