Pro Kabaddi League 2017 Season 5: Tamil Thalaivas played admirably, says Patna Pirates coach after narrow win

The seemingly formidable Patna Pirates looked to have found their match as Pro Kabaddi League Season 5 Zone B’s bottom-placed Tamil Thalaivas made a thunderous start in the clash between the Patna and the Chennai franchises at the Harivansh Tana Bhagat Indoor Stadium in Ranchi on Wednesday. They made their intentions clear right from the start as they tackled the imperious Pardeep Narwal and led 18-13 at the end of the first half.

It eventually headed for an enthralling finish as Patna bounced back in the second half only to see Chennai too clawing their way back and making it just a solitary point deficit at 38-39. The hosts held their nerves with a review going their way and helping them register a 41-39 victory.

The topsy-turvy match certainly had the Patna loyalists on tenterhooks. Coach Ram Mehar Singh was candid as ever when he admitted that this was the toughest encounter for them in their home leg and gave quite a scare to the defending champions.

About the initial lead, Singh talked how they had gone on the backfoot at the beginning. “The Tamil Thalaivas were playing more aggressively and we were a bit defensive at the start of the match. That was why the initial lead was with the Chennai team.”

Singh attributed the Thalaivas’ initial confidence to the strength, skills and fearlessness of the youngsters playing in the Chennai team.

“The new, young players in the Tamil Thalaivas team have speed and strength, so they managed to attack a lot. They were sure to restrict Pardeep in the initial stages of the match and did not give him any chance.”

The Patna mentor, who called the Bengal Warriors team ‘lucky’ just a couple of days back, did not shy away from praising the efforts of the Tamil Thalaivas unit. The display that they showed was pretty admirable, Singh confessed.

“The Tamil Thalaivas played very well despite knowing the fact that our team has top quality players. Since we were trailing from the start and then towards the very end also it became a nerve-wracking affair, I consider this to be our toughest match in our home leg,” Singh explained.

On his part, the Tamil Thalaivas coach K Baskaran simply said that they would have definitely achieved success had the crucial review gone their way.

“If only we had a bit of success in the reviews, we could have won this match,” he said.