Pardeep Narwal’s season-best effort went in vain as his team UP Yoddhas went down 48-41 to Patna Pirates, who continued their winning run, in Pro Kabaddi League Season 10 at the Noida Indoor Stadium on Monday.
The plaudits fell in the lap of Pirates’ raider Sachin and his brilliant Super 10 (in addition to his two tackle points), as well as their skipper Neeraj Kumar’s High 5, which was enough to take his team to victory despite a fighting season-best 21 points from league legend and UP Yoddhas skipper Pardeep Narwal against his former team.
The home side was pegged back by the Patna Pirates early in the game as the team from Bihar got the UP Yoddhas All-Out in the first 10 minutes of the match. This gave them an eight-point lead after the Pirates took advantage of multiple unsuccessful raids by the side from Uttar Pradesh.
All eyes were on leading PKL raider Pardeep Narwal, with the fan favourite starting the match on a positive note, getting a couple of successful raids as well.
For the Patna-based side, it was their raider Sachin fetching a majority of the points and racing to eight raid points in the first half. But his run was stopped beautifully by the UP Yoddhas’ defenders who were slowly clawing their way back into the game after a Super Tackle from substitute Shivam Chaudhary.
This was not enough to hold back the Pirates, who had a comfortable 12-point lead heading into half-time after a late All-Out against the Yoddhas, their second of the match in the first half.
The second half started with a bang for the home team as Pardeep displayed why he is one of the best raiders in the league. He eliminated three of the opponent’s defenders — Ankit, Manish and Sudhakar M. — to complete an exhilarating Super Raid, as well as his Super 10 with one swift move.
The Pirates, led by veteran defender Neeraj Kumar who bagged a High 5 for himself, were off guard in the first five minutes of the second half. They found their feet in the game after Neeraj got Pardeep to win a Super Tackle, and then Manjeet joined the party in a Do-or-Die raid, with Nitesh Kumar, Vijay Malik, and Sumit finding themselves off the mat.
Manjeet struck once again soon after, as the Yoddhas were caught All-Out for the third time in the match and the Pirates began taking an unassailable lead in the game.
This did not stop the rampage created by Sachin during the match, with his all-round performance taking all the attention by the end of the match. The Yoddhas getting the Pirates All-Out in the final two minutes of the clash did not do much, with the Patna-based team eventually securing a seven-point victory over their rivals.
