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Patna Pirates - the defending champions were in action again on Saturday when they played against the Tamil Thalaivas in their seventh game of the season and, after starting off slowly, made easy work of the debutantes whose defence had the misfortune of coming in the way of rampaging pair of Pardeep Narwal and Monu Goyat.
They both plundered points in the second half and were given ample support by the Jaideep-led defence to sink Thalaivas completely.
More than the first match, however, it was the second match of the night that had everybody excited as U Mumba and Puneri Paltan fought in the Maharashtrian derby. This was the first time both the teams were meeting after Pune had their first win of the derby in their last encounter. U Mumba made all the right moves and had the match in control for most part of the game before Pune showed why they are such a feared and respected opponent.
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They turned the tables right at the last to eke out a narrow victory from a match that, at once, had seemed out of their grasp.
These were the five talking points from the 26th day of Pro Kabaddi League.
#1 Dubki King's comeback
The evening began in the most ominous of ways for Pardeep Narwal as he was brought down on his first raid by old nemesis Amit Hooda. In the next two of three raids, Darshan came off the chain and took him out of the equation twice with a block.
For once, it seemed a defensive unit had cracked the Narwal code as the raider's misery continued for the most part of the first half as he spent much of it on the sidelines.
But just before the half time whistle, Narwal got an easy point to inflict the All Out and then came back again to fool the full strength defence with a special Dubki.
From there on, neither Narwal nor his team looked behind and put a sloppy first half comfortably behind to score a dominating win. Narwal finished only with six points, which is almost nothing in front of a name that has produced 19 points too. However, after that kind of beginning to the game, Narwal has reasons to be proud of those 6 points even.
#2 Goyat redeems himself
Monu Goyat must have had a difficult time sleeping on Friday night and he must have played the last raid of the match against Bengal again and again in his mind. His last second mistake cost the team a win they deserved as the Warriors defence brought him down to get a point that helped them go home with a tie.
On Saturday, Goyat put that raid behind him to turn in a performance that helped the team stage a comeback from a not so great position in the first half. At the 18th minute of the match, the scores were tied 8-8 and the game could have gone in any direction. But first, Narwal got the team a lead going into the first half and then Goyat took over in the second half to display his range as a raider.
His performance must have pleased the coach as it came on the day when Narwal wasn't at his best. For Goyat, the 11 points from the match must have meant a sound sleep apart from all the well deserved accolades he received for it.
#3 Tamil Thalaivas - the one half team
Tamil Thalaivas just can’t seem to solve the puzzle, it seems. The team seems to perform only in one half of their games. After three matches where they drew two and lost the other by one point, it was expected that they would give Patna a run for their money in Mumbai. And they raised hopes to the height of the Eifel Tower when they started off the proceedings in the finest of fashions.
Pardeep Narwal was taken care of and Monu Goyat too wasn’t making much of an impact. For once, it seemed the team that has built a reputation for waking up too late had woken up at the right time on Saturday, in the first half. They dominated the first ten minutes of the first half, held the match with a tight grip in the next 9 but let it slip after that.
In the second half, though, it was almost a procession. The defence made mistake after mistake while the raiders failed to score. Only skipper Ajay Thakur salvaged some pride by getting his Super 10 but that only told the sad tale of the Thalaivas whose other six men could only get six more raid points for the team.
One can only wonder when will the Thalaivas play their best game in both the halves and what will the result then be.
#4 Anup Kumar the Nostrdamus of Pro Kabaddi
If there is one adjective that best describes Rajesh Mondal, it is 'wily'. The man is a proven escape artist and one of the specialists in the Do or Die raid business and that speaks much about his guile. And one man who knows it quite well is someone who has played quite a lot against him – the U Mumba captain Anup Kumar.
That’s why when Mondal came in with just three U Mumba men on the mat and few seconds left on the clock for half time, Anup Kumar was wary of the moustachioed man.
The seasoned campaigner that Kumar is, he didn’t waste any time in cautioning young Surender to be on a look out for a quick toe touch. Mondal spent the next few seconds testing both the corners and just when it seemed that the danger had been averted and he would go back home empty handed, he brought out the toe touch and guess on whom! Poor young and innocent Surender.
Experience can make you a lot of things. Nostradamus is what it seems to have made Anup Kumar.
#5 Pune defence steps up when needed
U Mumba had done almost everything right on the night to have their noses ahead in the game until the 35th minute. The bringing on of Nitin Madane as a substitution raised a few eyebrows, though. In hindsight, it would prove to be the turning point because champion teams like Puneri Paltan wait for the smallest of windows of opportunities to open to make a big mark and Madane presented that opportunity for them.
And they did make a mark.
Leading by example was their captain Deepak Niwas Hooda, who had a forgettable outing in the last match but was up and running on Saturday night. Hooda had already brought in seven raid points when he brought down Nitin Madane with an ankle hold to give his team the lead.
Next came in Anup Kumar, U Mumba's best hope to salvage a point, and with it, a draw. But he was pummelled over by the man they call the 'Beast' - Sandeep Narwal. With that dash of Sandeep Narwal, the fate of the game had been sealed as a two point lead in the dying moments proved to be a mountain too high for the U Mumba unit to climb who succumbed to their second Maharashtra derby defeat, both coming in Season 5.
