Continuing their unbeaten run, Patna Pirates edged past Bengal Warriors 36-31 in their Pro Kabaddi league match here on Tuesday.
The win takes Pirates to the top with 25 points while Bengal Warriors with 21 points remain in second place. Bengal Warriors were on the verge of getting full control of the match when they were leading 12-6 and with substitute Rajesh Mondal the lone man coming in to raid had to exercise caution to get the rivals all-out.
But Rajesh came up with a 4-point super raid including a bonus. With three of their players revived the Patna Pirates were given a huge lifeline. That was in the 15 minute of play.
The teams trooped off for the break with Warriors leading 17-16. In between they took two successful reviews. Those two referrals helped them get Rohit and Pardeep Narwal once each.
Having missed the all-out themselves, Bengal Warriors paid heavily after the break when they were wiped off and they fell into arrears at 17-21 in the 22nd minute.
A second all-out put Warriors further behind at 31-23 in the 31st minute. The failure of Mahesh Goud was the hosts undoing. Nitin Tomar strove manfully and so did the Korean Jang Kun lee with nine points each but the not so good showing of the otherwise reliable defense Bengal Warriors went down.
Sandeep and Rohit were in the thick of action on Tuesday. Rohit had a tally of 11 with 10 raid points and 1 tackle point. Sandeep had 6 tackle points with one super tackle.
The shy-looking Pardeep Narwal was once again effective while contributing 7 raid points.