PKL 2018: Fortunegiants, Pirates chalk up wins
Skipper Pardeep Narwal’s stunning 27-point raid guided Patna Pirates to a thumping 53-36 victory over Puneri Paltan in an inter-zonal challenge match of Pro Kabaddi League.
Published : Dec 08, 2018 00:34 IST
Gujarat Fortunegiants earned a hard-fought 29-27 win over Telugu Titans in the Inter Zone Challenge Week of Pro Kabaddi Season 6 here Friday.
The raiding duo of K. Prapanjan and Sachin combined to score 19 points to lead their team’s charge. Telugu Titans’ home leg got off to a bad start. Rahul Chaudhari top scored with 8 points for the Titans who remain bottom of the table in Zone B.
Sachin picked up two raid points from his first two raids to give Gujarat Fortunegiants a 2-1 lead. Rahul Chaudhari made his first successful raid in the fifth minute as Telugu Titans led 4-3. The next few minutes were pretty even as both teams jostled for points but Chaudhari tilted the balance in Titans’ favour in the 10th minute.
Prapanjan made a quick and successful raid in the 13th minute as Gujarat trailed 7-8. Prapanjan’s two-point raid in the 15th minute gave Gujarat 11-9 lead. The Fortunegiants ended the first half strongly as they inflicted an all out in the 20th minute. At the end of the first half Gujarat Fortunegiants led 17-12.
Telugu Titans started the second half strongly as they scored three quick points to reduce the deficit to just two points. Sachin made a two-point raid as Gujarat Fortunegiants led 19-17 after 24 minutes. In the 30th minute, substitute Rakshith scored with a two-point raid as Titans trailed 20-21.
Pirates ride on Pardeep's mammoth effort
Skipper Pardeep Narwal’s stunning 27-point raid guided Patna Pirates to a thumping 53-36 victory over Puneri Paltan in an inter-zonal challenge match of Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) here on Friday.
Pardeep also reached the 800-point landmark in the history of the league.
For Pune, GB More put in a strong raiding effort and scored 13 points but didn’t get support from his defence.
Pardeep Narwal got Patna Pirates off to a storming start with a super raid in the 2nd minute. Narwal scored the first six points for Patna in three minutes to give them 6-3 lead.
Puneri Paltan suffered an all out in the next minute as they trailed 4-9.
Sandeep Narwal scored his third point as Puneri Paltan tried to mount a comeback to trail 6-9 after five minutes.
In the eighth minute, Patna Pirates led 13-8 and were looking in fine form with Pardeep Narwal leading their charge. At the end of the first half Patna Pirates led 24-19.
The second half started in a similar fashion as Pardeep picked up a two-point raid and Patna inflicted an all out to lead 30-21.
Puneri Paltan had no answer to Pardeep Narwal and were left floundering.
GB More tried his best to keep the margin of defeat respectable for Puneri Paltan. Sandeep Narwal also did put in a performance for Pune but they still couldn’t match up to Patna Pirates.
With less than 10 minutes to go, Patna Pirates held a 13-point lead and looked in command. Pardeep continued to torment Puneri Paltan’s defence and in the process also became the first man to reach the 800 raid point landmark in the history of Pro Kabaddi League.
Patna ran out comfortable winner with a 17-point victory margin in the end.