Patna Pirates’ captain Pardeep Narwal scored a point with his first raid and kept his side in the lead throughout the tie as it outclassed Bengal Warriors 47-44 to seal its entry into the PKL final, here on Thursday evening.
In his very second raid, Pardeep – who is PKL’s all-time high scorer – scored a Super Raid and inflicted an All Out as well, giving Pirates a massive eight-point lead at 9-1, in the fourth minute of the tie. Pardeep finished the tie with 23 points.
Warriors’ ace raider Maninder Singh looked rather off-colour in the first half and until the 15th minute, he had managed only a single raid point to his name.
Pirate’s defence, which has conceded the most number of points in this edition, held fort and hardly gave away any points. At half time, Pirates enjoyed a nine-point cushion and led 21-12.
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Warriors seemed to stage a comeback in the second half at 16-22, but Monu's two-point raid extended Patna's lead to a comfortable eight points. Pardeep followed up his team-mate’s effort by staging another brilliant all-out raid, propelling Patna to 28-17.
Revival
While it seemed like Patna would have an easy passage from this position, Bengal staged a late comeback with a little over a minute to go. The Pirates, though held on to a five-point lead at 46-41.
Pirates survived the late scare to scrape through 47-44 and and book its berth in Saturday’s final against Gujarat FortuneGiants, where it will bid for a record third straight title.
- Patna Pirates 47 bt Bengal Warriors 44
