Monu Goyat stars for Patna in dominating win over Chennai

Patna Pirates trotted to a comfortable 35-24 victory over Tamil Thalaivas at the Dome@NSCI SVP Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday. Monu Goyat racked up a Super 10, scoring 11 points on the night, while Jaideep was their best defender having notched up a High 5. Chennai skipper Ajay Thakur also picked up another Super 10 in a losing cause.

Chennai started brighter of the two sides and managed to keep Pardeep Narwal quiet early on thanks to well-executed tackles by Amit Hooda and Darshan J. The Pirates though demonstrated the resilience of champions and started to grow into the game as the half progressed. Their skipper was still finding it tough going and was tackled by Chennai for the third time in the 13^th minute.

However, at the other end of the mat, Patna’s defence was doing everything in their power to keep themselves in the game. A super tackle on Thakur in the 14^th minute, followed by a successful Vinod Kumar raid and another successful tackle saw the defending champions tie things up at 8-8 two minutes later.

They eventually took the lead three minutes before the break courtesy of a successful Goyat raid. Pardeep then returned to the mat and picked up his first two raid points of the match in quick succession to effect an All-Out on Chennai. The Dubki King went on to end the half with a two-pointer and take a 16-9 lead into the break.

The second period got underway with both sides picking up raid points consistently. Goyat was doing most of the damage for Patna, whereas Thakur was Chennai’s most potent threat in attack. In fact, Goyat was by far his side’s best raider of the night as he showcased with a devastating super raid in the 32^nd minute to inflict a second All-Out on Chennai.

The Pirates began to coast to victory in the final five minutes of the game with both attack and defence looking confident. Goyat completed his Super 10 in the 37^th minute as Chennai’s defence continued to struggle against him having managed to neutralize Pardeep’s threat. The closing stages of the encounter witnessed the Pirates run down the clock with smart tactical raids to help them to a convincing win.

Check out our snapshots from this match here.