Pirates steal a last-second 1 point win over Pink Panthers in thrilling climax at Vizag
THE PATNA PIRATES got a sensational 1 point victory over Jaipur Pink Panthers in the first match of the night at Star Sports Pro Kabaddi in Vizag today.
Jasvir Singh led the Panthers' efforts with a couple of successful raids up front as the Pirates pushed back by successfully tackling Sonu Narwal.
The Panthers were chipping away at the Pirates on the mat and at one point the men in green were down to two. But that's where they turned things around, arresting the danger man Jasvir Singh with a two-man super tackle. It immediately got them even in terms of points and took away the momentum from the Abhishek Bachchan-owned frianchise.
Pradip Narwal ran a successful rain but in his next venture got tackled hard. A few one-point raids from both sides saw the score up to 12-10 for favour of Patna.
The scoreboard kept ticking on as both sides kept adding to their tally, neither side getting a significant lead until a mega raid by Pradeep Narwal that saw the Pirates go from 14-15 down to 17-15 up, taking out 3 crucial Panthers defenders in the process. Their lead went up to 4 when they ganged up on Panthers raider Kuldeep Singh, pinning him down to the mat. 20-16.
The Panthers kept their cool and began their efforts to slowly reduce the deficit, thanks to by a couple of sucessful raids by Jasvir Singh and trapping Manpreet Singh.
Then the match took a dramatic turn with both teams taking out crucial raiders from each other. Jasvir Singh got trapped under a sea of green and Pradeep Narwal got dragged away from that mid-line by the men in pink. The Panthers suffered another blow when they lost Sonu Narwal too, to a super tackle, taking the score up to 24-21 in favour of the Pirates.
The Pirates increased their lead once again when a superb 3 point raid from Pradeep Narwal took the score up to 27-22, with 6 minutes left on the clock.
The Panthers replied with a super-tackle, a doubl ankle-hold to take out the formidable raider Rohit Kumar to make it 27-24. But the Pirates striked back by getting a stranglehold on Sonu Narwal. 28-24, a 4 point lead with 4 minutes to go.
After a well-taken timeout, the Panthers re-evaluated their strategy and moved in for the final hail. Rajesh Narwal scored a touch on a raid and coupled with a technical point brought the score to 28-27. It was a 1 point game with just a minute to go.
With seconds to spare, Panthers were spectacularly back in the game when they trapped a raider, making it 28-all. And who else but Jasvir Singh came back on the mat to run the final raid of the match.
He walked deep into the Pirates half, striding in an aloof manner. But it was going to prove costly for him and his team. As the Patna players managed to trap him on the left edge of the mat, and lead by Sunil Kumar, leapt on Jasvir like their life depended on it. It was over. The Pirates got the extra point and sealed the match, with the scoreboard reading 29-28 in a match that went literally down to the last second; and actually a few moments beyond.
