PKL 2017 | Pradeep Narwal stars as Patna Pirates streamroll Bengaluru Bulls

Pradeep Narwal’s Super-10 gives Patna Pirates a mammoth lead

Bengaluru won the toss and invited Patna to raid first and the side did not disappoint as they raced to a 3-0 lead in no time. But Patna managed to come back and level the game up at 3-3. The match was built as a face-off between Rohit Kumar and Pradeep Narwal and the latter did not disappoint as he managed a frog jump over the Bengaluru defence to open up a 6-4 lead, which then led to Patna inflicting the first all out of the game to go 9-5 up. Narwal then pulled off his signature move the ‘dubki’ before picking up another two raid points as Patna extended their advantage to 12-6. With just over five minutes to go in the first half, Patna consolidated their position and inflicted the second all out of the half extending their lead to 18-7. Towards the end of the first half, Patna managed their lead well as they went into the break with a healthy ten point lead at 23-11 as Narwal completed his super ten before the end of the first half itself.

Bengaluru prove to be no-match for Patna

Patana started the second half from where they had left off in the first as Pardeep Narwal inflicted the third all out on Bengaluru to remain in the driver’s seat at 29-15.  But Bengaluru initiated a comeback with some incredible defence led by Ravinder Pahal who held off two Patna raiders on consecutive occasions to reduce the deficit to 19-30. But Patna responded with two consecutive super tackles to maintain a massive 14-point advantage at 34-20. With ten minutes to go in the encounter, the game was Patna’s to lose. And as expected, Patna simply waited for Bengaluru’s raiders to commit mistakes and their Patna’s defence made them pay as they consolidated their position in the match with a massive 17-point lead with just over five minutes to go in the match. More importantly, Patan’s defence had kept Bengaluru’s talismanic skipper off the mat for almost fifteen minutes and that itself could have been seen as a sign of an impending Patna win. And as expected, Patna completed a comprehensive 46-32 win to keep up their unbeaten run in the tournament intact.