Pardeep Narwal powers UP to win, Patna maintain top spot in PKL 8 table

The Dubki King scored 14 points for Yoddha.

A collective performance from table-toppers Patna Pirates helped them beat Telugu Titans 38-30 in match 116 of vivo Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) Season 8. Raider Sachin scored a Super 10 (14 points) and defender Mohammadreza Shadloui secured a High 5 (5 tackle points) as Patna once again showed why they are on top of the points table with a victory that helped them guarantee a Top-2 finish in the league stages.

Bottom-placed Telugu Titans were playing the match for pride having already been ruled out of the playoffs race. They once again showed glimpses of their potential but failed to control the match in the dying stages. The 8-point margin of the defeat meant they walked away with no points from the PKL encounter.

Patna Pirates started on the front foot with their raiding duo of Guman Singh and Sachin finding errors in the Telugu defence. The Pirates rushed to an early lead and closed in on an ALL OUT. A Super Tackle on Mohammadreza Shadloui (for not crossing the Baulk Line) delayed it but Patna eventually removed all the Titans on the mat in the 7th minute to open a 7-point lead.

The Titans had no intention to be easy pushovers however and initiated an immediate fightback. Rajnish, with a heavily strapped knee, found mistakes in the Patna defence to slowly push his team closer to the Pirates. His 3-point Super Raid in the 17th minute gave the Titans an opportunity to inflict an ALL OUT on the table-toppers. Adarsh T then clinched a 2-point raid to get the ALL OUT and open a 1-point lead. Patna soon got back into the lead through Sachin and brought in the experienced Monu Goyat as a substitute to sharpen their attack. The scores were 21-20 in favour of the Pirates at halftime.

Sachin clinched his Super 10 in the second minute after half time but the Titans continued to match the Pirates blow for blow. Their defence ensured there were no easy points up for Pirates’ raiders. Ankit Beniwal also started supporting Rajnish in the raids as they moved to a 1-point lead. The scores were 27-26 with 10 minutes remaining in the PKL 8 encounter.

The depth of Patna’s squad meant they kept finding answers to all the challenges being thrown at them by the Titans. In the 5 minutes that followed the first Time Out, Patna outscored the Titans by 3 points to once again take the lead. The momentum shift proved decisive as the Pirates inflicted an ALL OUT with 3 minutes remaining to open a 7-point lead. Rajnish got his Super 10 for the Titans but that mattered little as the Pirates went on to clinch an important PKL win.

Pardeep Narwal is back

Pardeep Narwal was once again the hero for U.P. Yoddha as they beat Dabang Delhi K.C. 44-28 in match 117 of vivo Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) Season 8. The “record breaker” scored a Super 10 (14 points) as Yoddha controlled the match from the beginning to the end. 

The win helped Yoddha climb to third on the table with a match remaining in their league stages. They are now firm favourites for a slot in the playoff stages. Delhi missed out on an opportunity to go closer to a Top 2 finish with the loss. They will also be sweating about Naveen Kumar’s fitness after the star raider picked up an injury in the first half of the PKL 8 encounter.

The first half was a cagey affair with Delhi and U.P. matching fire with fire. Pardeep Narwal tried his level best to give his Yoddha team a lead only for the Delhi defenders to pounce on him. Delhi raider Naveen Kumar suffered the same fate at the other end of the match. At the end of the first 10 minutes, the scores were tied 7-7. And that continued to be the case at the end of the 16th minute with the scores again level at 10-10. The balance finally shifted when a surprising review from Delhi exposed that 3 of their defenders had followed Pardeep Narwal into the lobby without a touch. U.P. used that momentum to push for an ALL OUT and got it with the last move of the first half. The scores were 18-12 at the interval with Yoddha in the lead.

Naveen Kumar was substituted for Manjeet in the second half presumably due to an injury. The substitute was impressive with his raids as Delhi pressed hard to level the scores. But their experienced defence kept leaking unnecessary points to the likes of Surender Gill and Pardeep Narwal. The team from U.P. had a 7-point advantage after the first 10 minutes of the second half.  The PKL match continued to remain a low-scoring encounter with very few multi-point raids.

Pardeep Narwal clinched his Super 10 as Yoddha got their second ALL OUT with 8 minutes remaining in the PKL encounter. That opened a 10-point lead and the U.P. raiders slowed the speed of their raids to kill time. With Naveen in bench, Delhi lacked the raiding prowess to challenge U.P. Yoddha. Pardeep Narwal’s raids helped the team open a massive 15-point lead with 3 minutes remaining. They got another ALL OUT with 2 minutes remaining to seal an important win in their race for a playoff spot in PKL 8.

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