Pro Kabaddi League 2017 Season 5: Five talking points from Day 47 of PKL 5

Two contrasting matches panned out in Ranchi on Wednesday evening in Season 5 of Pro Kabaddi League as the Gujarat Fortunegiants showed some all-round brilliance to give a lacklustre U Mumba, who were struggling with their defence, a royal pasting while Patna Pirates prevailed over a spirited Tamil Thalaivas in a nail-biting encounter.

Both the teams that lost on the day had begun the game well and had it by the neck before allowing the other team to come back and dominate. With their wins, Patna and Gujarat consolidated their respective positions at the top of the table while making the road ahead for their respective opponents of the day extremely difficult.

Here are the five talking points from the day 47 of Season 5 of Pro Kabaddi League.

#1 Ranjith turns the table on U Mumba

In the absence of Hegde, Ranjit stepped up and got his team crucial raid points

It wasn’t the most promising of starts for the Gujarat Fortunegiants in the game and by the 10th minute, it seemed that Sukesh Hegde’s absence was badly felt by the team as they trailed by two points. But in a matter of a single minute, everything changed for the teams on the mat. Coming on to raid in the 11th minute, Chandran Ranjit showed great presence of mind to bring home three points with a super raid to put his team in the lead.

With Mumbai suddenly left with one man on the mat, the all out seemed imminent and when the sole U Mumba raider was felled, in a matter of a minutes, a team that was trailing by two points had found a five-point lead. This was just the shot in the arm Gujarat needed.

In fact, this proved to be the turning point in the game eventually as U Mumba never recovered from this blow and could only gather 14 more points in the next 30 minutes while their opponents racked up many more.

#2 Defence takes over

Iranian Atrachali ended the match with another well-deserved High-5

For a change, it was not the Fortunegiants defence but the raiding department that dominated the first half with Chandran Ranjit carrying out the maximum damage work. But when you have names like Abozar Mighani and Fazel Atrachali in your defence supported by Parvesh Bhainswal, how long can the defence stay out of the limelight?

Atrachali was the man who started the rout in the second half. On his retreat, Shrikant Jadhav had only Atrachali to overcome and a skillful escape artist that Jadhav is, he was expected to do it easily. But on this night, Atrachali was enough. He bulldozed him down on the verge of the midline with a block and didn’t even need any support as he earned his team a well-deserved tackle point, the first of many.

More points came Atrachali’s way when he had captain Anup Kumar’s number later in the second half. In between, there was also a Mighani special as he brought Kashiling Adake down with his trademark ankle hold and celebrated like a star, which he definitely has become after this immensely fruitful debut season with the Fortunegiants.

#3 The Narwal-Hooda contest

Pardeep Narwal wasn't allowed to go home with another Super 10 but he did the job

With the Tamil Thalaivas finding wins very difficult to come by, chances are high that Amit Hooda might not end up with the silverware. But he can surely go home with the bragging rights of having made the extraordinary Pardeep Narwal look ordinary every time the two have come up against each other. Such has been Hooda's impact that the generally feisty Narwal hasn’t even shied away from admitting that Hooda has the wood on him.

So when the Patna Pirates met the Tamil Thalaivas, the contest that everyone was waiting for, between the most successful raider of Season 5 and Thalaivas right corner, began. For once, Narwal looked cautious in his approach and tried to stay away from the reach of Hooda. But he couldn’t stay out of harm’s way for too long and Hooda brought him down with an ankle hold.

That tackle made Narwal change his tactic but even in the left corner, Narwal was tackled down and one of the men behind his fall was Hooda again. The second half, however, belonged to Narwal but he came to raid mostly when Monu Goyat had taken the threat Hooda out of the equation.

#4 A different Patna emerges after the break

Although Monu Goyat was the star of the day, Pardeep Narwal also made vital contributions

There is not a lot of time between the two halves in kabaddi but whatever time there was, Patna Pirates definitely made great use of that on Wednesday. For the magic potion that they had possibly used provided results straightaway when they came on to raid after the whistle through the ever so reliable Monu Goyat, who brought home two points immediately. After a quiet first half, Pardeep Narwal came to the party and in no time, the team was hunting down the Thalaivas score.

Patna had taken a lead in the 27th minute but they were not satisfied with just a two-point lead. In came Monu Goyat and put in a super raid and in the next one, the Patna defence galloped Thivakaran to inflict an All Out and take a nine-point lead.

After that, the Thalaivas were always chasing shadows, and though they must be credited for running Patna close, their lack of killer instinct was once again laid bare in front of all.

#5 Pirates defence comes to the party, finally!

Patna coach would hope the defence to keep up the good work in the coming games

The generosity of Patna’s defence has been a cause of worry for the management throughout the season as they have almost always given away all that the team’s brilliant pirates Goyat and Narwal have got the team through their raiding. The script remained the same even in the first half where they could only procure two tackle points and conceded loads of points by making rookie errors.

But just as the raiding department started coming good in the second half, so did the Pirates defence. Thalaivas raider Prapanjan, who had got as many points as his captain Ajay Thakur in the first half, was kept quiet in the second half. Even Ajay Thakur didn't raid as freely as he had done in the first half. Even when Patna were given a scare by Dong Geon Lee in the last minute and had a one-point lead but all defenders on the mat, defender Jawahar Dagar made a successful raid and saved the blushes for the team by ensuring a narrow win.