Pro Kabaddi League: Korean touch to Patna win

PUNE: South Korean captain Tae Daek Eom fired Patna Pirates into the semifinals with a thrilling 26-24 win over Jaipur Pink Panthers in the Pro Kabaddi League on Wednesday.
The 32-year-old former taekwondo and wrestling athlete, who took to the game only seven years ago, captured the imagination of the capacity crowd with his fast raids and breathtaking tackles that got the fans' favourite player award at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex.
With five total points -three touch points and two tackles Eom was the star player for Patna while captain Sandeep Narwal (five points) and raider Gurvinder Singh (four) weighed in with crucial efforts.
The match itself was never as close as the scoreline suggested, although Jaipur narrowed the margin in the last 10 minutes. Relying on Gurvinder's raid, Patna built a slender lead early on and it began to widen after Jaipur were all out in the 12th minutes. Jaipur began to get bogged down after their key raider Sonu Narwal was caught in the 14th minute.
Then, Eom started producing his energetic raids which began to tilt the game heavily in Patna's favour. The Pirates led 16-9 at half-time and Jaipur began to put a semblance of fight in the second half when they closed the gap to 23-20 by the 35th minute.
Eom was out twice and Gurvinder was also caught during this brief segment of play. Patna seemed to lose the momentum a bit but they switched their strategy to go for attack, which sealed the issue for them. The win meant Patna booked their semifinal berth as the fourth team from the league stage with 41 points. They will take on table toppers U Mumba while Telugu Titans will clash with Bengaluru Bulls in the last-four stage in Mumbai on Friday.
In the inconsequential second game of the day and final league fixture, Bengaluru Bulls subdued bottom placed Puneri Paltan 31-30.