Pune: Patna Pirates finished unbeaten in the first leg of Season 3 of Star Sports Pro Kabaddi with a thumping 47-34 win over Dabang Delhi K.C. at the Shree Chhatrapati Shivaji Sports Complex here. They finish top of the table with 33 points while Dabang Delhi were left consigned to last place finishing with two points.
Dabang Delhi K.C. have lost all seven matches, a dubious first in the league. Patna Pirates were sure to win and the job was made easy by the duo of Narwals, Pardeep and Deepak after the team from Delhi made a steady start to lead 5-1 in the 5th minute. It turned out to be a false alarm. Patna Pirates clawed back into the game through Deepak, who playing his first full match started raiding with confidence once he tasted blood getting Anil and Ani Nimbolkar in one raid.
K Selvamani, playing his first match raised visions of a Delhi revival and so did substitute Gnanasekharan with a two pointer to avert an all-out. The joy was short lived when Patna Pirates inflicted the first all-out in the 15th minute. Going up 15-11, they took further control to lead 20-15 at half-time.
The second half turned out to be more fruitful for the winners as their opponents failed to combine and put up a resistance. Pardeep and Deepak went on to record their ‘super ten’. Deepak ended the top scorer with 13 points of which two were from tackles. There were two all-outs inflicted by the winners in the second half. In the 29th minute it became 28-15 with the second and 38-18 with the third all-out. Dabang Delhi K.C. then scored an all-out themselves to narrow down the margin of defeat to 29-46.
Patna Pirates having assured themselves of a win relaxed their grip which allowed their rivals to score some easy points. Surjeet who had a good game benefited from the Patna largesse to score ten points of which two were bonus points. Dabang Delhi K.C. Coach Balwan Singh was sent off with a yellow card, the second of the league. It was a poor show by Dabang Delhi K.C. which didn’t have their star raider Kashiling Adake. But didn’t Patna Pirates make up for the loss of Sandeep Narwal and Rohit Kumar?
