Patna Pirates stunned former champions Jaipur Pink Panthers 29-28 with a decisive last raid in their very first appearance in the Season 3 of the Star Sports Pro Kabaddi league here on Monday.
It was debutant Sunil’s day as he blocked Jaipur’s best player of the day, Jasvir who with his marathon raids had garnered a whopping 11 points. At the halfway stage the winners had a 14-12 advantage after trailing 5-8 at one stage.
In the overall context it was a fine outing for the winners. Though their new captain, Manpreet Singh, a former Asian Games gold medalist failed to make an impact, the other three acquisitions, Rohit Kumar, Sunil Jaglan and Pradeep Narwal displayed good form to help their team win.
The winners were slow off the blocks. Jaipur on the other hand lost Sonu Narwal early and the whole burden of the attack was shouldered by Jasvir after his flop show against Mumbai for most part of the match. He scored as many as eight points in the first session but was super-tackled once.
Titans outclass Delhi 45-34
Telugu Titans scored their second successive win when they outclassed Dabang Delhi 45-34 with standout performances from star raiders Rahul Chaudhari and the not so heralded RohitBaliyan in attack. Rahul pocketed 11 points while Rohit had 10 to his credit. KashilingAdake and Surjit Singh also had high scores of 12 and 10.
At the midway stage Titans led 26-10 by inflicting two all outs against their rivals. The first came in very early in the 3rd minute to propel the winners 12-5. The momentum was provided by Rohit Balian with a super raid worth three points. Titans’ consistent performer Sukesh Hegde and Rahul got into scoring act too. The latter’s score of nine points swelled his team’s tally to 26-10 on the stroke of the interval. The match was won and lost at that stage itself.