Puneri Paltan beat Patna Pirates to pick up first win of the season

Puneri Paltan picked up a convincing 41-20 win over Patna Pirates at the Patliputra Indoor Stadium in Patna on Sunday to register their first victory in VIVO Pro Kabaddi Season 7. The Maharashtra-based side’s early blitz set up a comfortable win for Anup Kumar’s boys.

Puneri Paltan completely got the better of Patna Pirates in the opening 10 minutes of the match. They inflicted a first All-Out on the hosts just six minutes into the contest to take a 10-0 lead through an excellent team effort.

The home side, in fact, had to wait till the 11th minute of the contest to get their first point of the match courtesy of a successful raid from Monu. Once on the scoreboard, Patna Pirates grew in confidence with Pardeep ‘Record-Breaker’ Narwal starting to find his feet.

The home fans then had something to cheer about when a successful tackle by Jaideep enforced an All-Out on Puneri Paltan and reduced the gap to seven points. However, Puneri Paltan had the upper hand in the closing stages of the half and took a sizeable 20-10 lead into the break.  

The second half began in a more circumspect manner than the first with the teams trading blows. A Pardeep Narwal Super Raid five minutes into the second period reduced Puneri Paltan’s lead to seven points, but the visitors weren’t prepared to allow the hosts to build up a head of steam.

Successful tackles on a consistent basis by Puneri Paltan denied Patna Pirates any momentum and ensured that they had a 10-point lead to protect in the last 10 minutes. A sensational Super Raid by Pankaj Mohite didn’t just double Puneri Paltan’s lead to 32-16 but also enforced another All-Out on Patna Pirates to put the game beyond the host. The final few minutes of the match saw Puneri Paltan add their lead as Patna Pirates had to face another loss at home.   

Top Performers:

Patna Pirates –

Best Raider – Pardeep Narwal (6 Raid Points)

Best Defender – Jaideep (3 Tackle Points)

Puneri Paltan –

Best Raider – Pankaj Mohite (8 Raid Points)

Best Defender – Amit Kumar (4 Tackle Points)