Pro Kabaddi League: Patna Pirates kick off title defence with emphatic win

Mumbai : Defending champions Patna Pirates kicked off their Pro Kabaddi League campaign on a winning note as they brushed aside Puneri Paltan 30-24 in their opening match here on Monday.Looking to record a third successive win, the impressive Puneri Paltan were brought down to earth by Patna Pirates.
Surjeet Singh scored seven raid points and Fazel Atrachali marshaled the defence impecabbly as Patna Pirates produced an excellent all-round performance to record their first win of the fourth season of Pro Kabaddi League.Puneri Paltan, who are standing at the top of the league with 11 points from three games, failed to maintain their winning momentum against the Patna Pirates.For the Pirates, Surjeet scored four points with his first five raids. With less than two minutes to go, Pradeep Narwal came up with do-or-die raid and the Pirates followed it with an all out in the next minute to ensure they went into the break with a six point lead with the score 16-10. Ajay Thakur, who put in a marvelous performance against U Mumba on Sunday, started slowly as he couldn’t score any point in the first half. Even Puneri Paltan skipper Manjeet Chhillar couldn’t score a single point in the first half.Chhillar and Puneri Paltan began the second half brightly. Pune skipper opened his account with his first tackle and raid in the second half. Nitin Tomar scored with a do-or-die raid in the sixth minute before Chhillar got another point with a tackle as Puneri reduced the deficit to a single point.