Patna dominate Bengal, Gujarat edge past Bengaluru in PKL Season 8

Sachin and Pardeep Kumar scored for their respective sides on Sunday.

Sachin helped Patna Pirates beat defending champions Bengal Warriors 38-29 on the final day in vivo Pro Kabaddi League Season (PKL) 8’s Rivalry Week. Sachin scored a Super 10 (11 points) and was ably supported by Guman Singh (7 points) in the raiding unit. The Pirates’ defence was in top form too with Mohammadreza Shadloui picking up a High 5. The win helped Patna Pirates move to the top of the points table. The three-time champions are now favourites to clinch a top-2 finish which will give them a direct entry into the Season 8 semi-finals.

Bengal Warriors had yet another poor day on the mat with both their defence and attack struggling. They will now need to ensure they win all the remaining matches of the season to stand a chance of making it to the eliminators of PKL 8. 

Patna controlled the first half with a collective performance. Their raiders Sachin and Guman Singh found easy mistakes from the Bengal defenders to give an early lead. Bengal’s raiders including Maninder Singh had no similar luck at the other end with Mohammadreza Shadloui manning the left corner. Bengal staged a small comeback when Abozar Mighani and Manoj Gowda pulled off two tackles. But Patna were relentless in their pursuit for that ALL OUT and got it with 2 minutes remaining for halftime. The scores were 21-10 at the interval with Bengal in desperate need of inspiration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMEBD1leORA

Patna continued to dominate after the break. Their raiders slowed down the pace of the match while defenders ensured there were no slip-ups. Bengal’s Maninder Singh struggled to make an impact as Patna left corner Mohammadreza Shadloui picked his High 5 (6th of the season) in the 8th minute. Even the usually reliable Ran Singh in Bengal’s left corner was having an error-prone night. But despite the dominance, the Pirates failed to inflict another ALL OUT.

Patna had an 8-point lead with 5 minutes remaining in the match. Sachin clinched his Super 10 as the Pirates finally secured their second ALL OUT. That opened the lead to 11 points. The Patna team kept calm in the dying minutes to ensure they won the PKL 8 match.

Gujarat Giants edge past Bengaluru Bulls

Pardeep Kumar’s last-minute heroics helped Gujarat Giants beat Bengaluru Bulls 40-36 on the final day in vivo Pro Kabaddi League Season (PKL) 8’s Rivalry Week. The raider scored a Super 10 (14 points) including four in the final minute to give Gujarat a very important win in their battle to secure a Playoff spot. The Giants captain Sunil Kumar also had a good night in the right cover position with a High 5. Bengaluru Bulls will have only have themselves to blame for the loss. A lapse of concentration in the final minutes cost them important points. Their raiders Pawan Sehrawat and Bharat scored Super 10s but didn’t get the necessary support from the defence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7fZD6LJcN8

There was very little to separate the two sides in an evenly contested first half. Bengaluru started the PKL 8 match brightly with their captain Pawan Sehrawat looking in good form. But the raider was pinned to the mat in the early minutes by Parvesh Bhainswal with a Super Tackle which temporarily gave Gujarat the momentum. But Bengaluru immediately took back the lead with Bharat also joining in the raiding duties. They kept probing the experienced Gujarat defence. Again, right when the Bulls smelled an ALL OUT possibility, Sunil Kumar came up with a Super Tackle. Pardeep Kumar’s 3-point Super Raid in the 15th minute gave Gujarat a slender advantage, but Pawan immediately clinched a 3-point Super Raid for the Bulls to douse the fire. The first half ended 15-14 with the Giants in the lead.

The defenders continued to dominate in the early minutes of the second half. Gujarat’s Sunil Kumar reached his High 5 with fellow cover defender Parvesh Bhainswal offering great support. Pardeep Kumar’s 2-point raid in the 9th minute after the restart gave Gujarat a chance to inflict an ALL OUT. They eventually got the game’s first ALL OUT with 9 minutes on the clock to build a 5-point lead in PKL 8.

Bharat and Pawan Sehrawat kept working extra hard on the mat to keep the Bulls within touching distance. Bharat raced to a Super 10 and made it a 2-point game with 3 minutes remaining. Pardeep’s high-pressure raid forced two Bulls’ defenders into falling out of bounds. But Pawan Sehrawat immediately clinched a 2-point raid to once again reduce Gujarat’s lead to 2 points. With a minute left to play Bulls got an ALL OUT to level the scores at 35-35. But Pardeep Kumar produced two 2-point raids in the final minute of the match to take the game completely away from the Bulls in PKL 8. 

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