Backed by a massive raiding performance, Bengal Warriors inflicted a first loss of the season on the Patna Pirates, beating them 60-42 at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on Tuesday, making this the 4th highest match points in PKL’s history with a total of 102 points being scored.
Maninder Singh’s 15 points, Nitin Kumar’s 14 and Shrikanth Jadhav’s 12 points extended the Warriors unbeaten run for the season, at the cost of the only other unbeaten team in the league.
A game between two unbeaten teams was always going to centre on who blinked first. As it was, it was the Bengal Warriors, whose talisman Maninder Singh was caught on his first raid of the evening. A tight Pirates defence ensured that they did not leak points while at the other end Sachin kept picking up points sporadically to keep them up on the scorecards.
A Super Raid with 5 points (in a single raid) by Nitin Kumar changed the complexion of the game in the final ten minutes of the half, the Warriors going from a three point deficit to leading by one. It sparked a three minute turnaround that saw the Warriors inflict the first All Out of the evening, streaking into a 16-11 lead.
The Patna Pirates started the second half down by 11 points and despite a brief comeback, soon faced a second All Out as the Warriors extended into a 34-22 lead. Maninder and Jadhav had completed their Super 10s a quarter of the game yet to go, and the Pirates were basically staving off the inevitable.
The Warriors inflicted a third All Out in the final minutes of the game before wrapping up the points and breaking the Pirates’ unbeaten run with a massive 18 points victory.
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