VIVO Pro Kabaddi: Pirates slip in last home game

RANCHI: Revenge was indeed served sweet for the UP Yoddha as they halted the Patna Pirates juggernaut with a superb five-point (46-41) victory in their Zone `B' encounter of the VIVO Pro-Kabaddi at the Harivansh Tana Bhagat Indoor Stadium, here, on Thursday . Having tasted a three-point de feat against the hosts on Saturday , the Yoddha returned the favour in style with an outstanding display in both attack and defence.
Unlike their usual aggressive beginning, the Pirates started on an ungainly note with skipper Pardeep Narwal returning with an empty opening raid.With his opposite number Nitin Tomar putting the vulnerable Patna defence under pressure, even the reliable Monu Goyat could only manage a bonus point to get the hosts off the mark.
Taking advantage an inexperienced backline, Tomar and Rishank Devadiga reeled off points at will as the possibility of succumbing to an early all-out appeared over the horizon for the Pirates. Devadiga scored big with a super raid, eking out Jaideep, Jawahar Dagar and Vishal Mane, leaving Narwal last-man standing. The Pirates captain, bereft of his golden touch, failed to put much of a resistance as the Yoddha defence soon pinned him down to register their first all-out of the match.
Trailing by 12 points (15-27) at half-time, the men in green and yellow turned the tables on Tomar & Co with Narwal back to his scintillating best. The Haryana lad notched up a super-10 in no time and it wasn't long before the hosts had scored an all-out of their own. However, the comeback proved of little help as the Pirates crashed to their fourth loss of the tournament and first at home.
Earlier, the Haryana Steelers outclassed the Jaipur Pink Panthers by four points (30-26) in their Zone A encounter to notch up their seventh win of the season.