PKL 2021: Patna Pirates hand Puneri Paltan heavy defeat, Haryana Steelers edge Telugu Titans for season's first win

Pro Kabaddi 8: Patna Pirates' raiders proved too strong for Puneri Paltan while Meetu Mahender and Surender Nadal guided Haryana Steelers cruised to its first win of the season against Telugu Titans.

Monu Goyat, Sachin Tanwar and Prashant Kumar Rai came together along with a strong defensive show from the back line to beat Puneri Paltan by a massive 12-point margin in a Pro Kabaddi match on Tuesday.

Three-time champion Patna Pirates beat Puneri Paltan 38-26 in a Pro Kabaddi League Season 8 match here on Tuesday.

Sachin scored a Super 10 (10 points) and was ably supported by Patna’s defensive trio of Sunil (4 points), Mohammadreza Chiyaneh (3 points) and Sajin C (3 points).

The lack of a quality raider despite promising performances from youngsters will be a cause of concern for the Puneri Paltan who succumbed to their second loss in three matches.

As it happened:

All eyes were once again on Pune’s Rahul Chaudhari but the showman, despite starting the match, was substituted for young Mohit Goyat by coach Anup Kumar in the first half.

What Anup Kumar said about substituting Rahul Chaudhari early: Rahul playing for Puneri Paltan is very important for the team. The three games he has played and whatever we've seen hasn't been able to perform to the best of his abilities. Even today, we substituted him because he was looking off colour. Rahul is a big player and has a lot of experience and it will be a problem for us if he doesn't come good. What went wrong in this game: Our timing was not right today. Biggest mistake was, when we had five defenders in the end, we had exhausted our substitutes and we had just one raider - Aslam - on the mat. He tried to advance tackle Sachin and we lost two points there and ended up losing men. That was a turning point for us   Ram Mehar Singh on Patna's raiders' performances: I am very happy with my raiders - we have a young player and two experienced players in that trio and they've come good for the side together. On Chiyaneh: He is very aggressive and a very good player. He's shaping up really well with each game.

The trio of raiders including Aslam Inamdar and Pankaj Mohite caused problems for the Patna defence while at the other end Prashant Kumar Rai and Sachin were equally effective.

Patna was facing the risk of an 'All Out' with six minutes left to half time, but its defender Sajin C completed a Super Tackle to turn the momentum.

The three-time champion got lucky later when Monu Goyat entered the lobby without contact, in a do-or-die raid only to be followed by three Pune defenders who had been deceived by his actions.

The first half ended 14-14 with Pune having just two men on the mat.

Pune brought in Shubham Shelke for Pankaj Mohite in the second half. But Patna kept fighting back, thanks largely to confident tackles from the likes of Mohammadreza Chiyaneh and Sajin.

With 10 minutes remaining, Patna had a 4-point lead and that was extended as Pune’s plan to play on the do-or-die raid backfired.

Sachin scored two points in the crucial raid for Patna to inspire another 'All Out' in the 13th minute and open a 10-point lead.

Sunil and Vishal Bharadwaj picked up yellow cards in the final minutes as the match became intense. But Patna ensured there was no late comeback by Pune to clinch an important win.

Meetu Mahender put in an impressive shift for Haryana Steelers scoring his first Super 10 in the Pro Kabaddi League.

 

Haryana Steelers 39-37 Telugu Titans

In other match of the night, Meetu and Rohit Gulia shone for Haryana Steelers as an all-round performance helped them beat Telugu Titans

Haryana was the more confident side for most parts of the game, with Vikash Kandola not needing to take on major raiding duties for the night. Rohit Gulia (eight points) and Meetu Mahender (12 points) were impressive for the Steelers as they keep the scoreboard ticking. As it happened:

Siddharth Desai (nine points) employed an uncharacteristic strategy of relying on bonus points to keep his own tally and the team scoreline going. He eventually ended up injuring his wrist towards the end of the first half and did not feature in the game after that.

Steelers went into half-time with a six point lead, but a few elementary errors allowed a shaky Titans lineup to find its way back with the gulf coming down to a few points in the final few minutes.

Surender Nada's solidity in defense and his 100 percent tackle strike rate gave Haryana a boost, despite the team's tendencies to leak points in the last few minutes of the game, and ensured the side had done enough to see the final minute through.

Update on Siddharth Desai's injury: Desai looked to have injured his wrist during a raid in the first half.  Details not available yet. The coach says that the load on his hand was too much, while struggling through a raid, players fell on him, injuring it a bit. Desai is injured but they can't say for how long. Rakesh Kumar on Vikash Kandola's 'off night': Nothing of the sort. Vikash is a very good player, everyone knows that when the team is in a position of trouble, he stands up and fights. It often happens that a player is not able to move to the best of their abilities but it is not right to say he did not perform today or his performance was low. We kept him out for a while so that he could cool down for a bit and then get back but the situation did not arise for him to come out and fight. The plans we made to make Rohit Gulia the lead raider, we did that and he performed very well and Meetu also played very well. So Vikash did not need to raid. It often happens that if a good raider keeps going at it continuously, then he manages to keep scoring. If he stops somewhere, the rhythm breaks. Vikash is that kind of raider. If he keeps going to raid, he will score, but if there's a break then he loses momentum. Someone's performance doesn't become good or bad based on one game. Rakesh Kumar on Haryana's tendencies to leak points in the end: Yes this is a point of a concern for me. If any team takes the lead, the opponent is the one that does and should come under pressure but my team tends to come under pressure when it takes the lead. I don't know why. I will work on this. I saw this in the last two games and saw it today too. The team's balance gets disrupted a little after and despite taking the lead. Why that happens and how is something I will work on and going forward you will see the team playing with a good rhythm for all 40 minutes.