The 3-day rest suited the Patna Pirates, especially Pardeep Narwal who displayed his class and led his team to a win against a strong U.P. Yoddha by 43-41.
The game was at level terms till the 10th minute of the second half. From thereon, the Patna Pirates, with each raid, managed to create a gap which resulted in the slender victory by 2 points.
Pardeep Narwal's consistent raiding of 16 points from 25 raids made sure that the Patna Pirates came out on top in this see-saw encounter. He was supported well in the attack by Deepak Narwal who scored 7 raid points.
The Pirates' defense was under criticism after their lackluster performance in their match against the Tamil Thalaivas, but today with the inclusion of Jawahar (5 points) in the team they showed better coordination to win 11 tackle points to the Yoddhas 7 points.
The U.P. Yoddhas, on the other hand, had more raid points than the Pirates, but what let them down was their defense, which couldn't manage to maintain the form that they had against the Tamil Thalaivas.
Shrikant Jadhav was the top raider for the Yoddhas with 12 points from 19 raids. He was supported well by his captain Rishank Devadiga (8 points), and Prashanth Kumar Rai (6 points).
The young Nitesh Kumar was the only bright spot in the defense with 4 tackle points, while the rest of the defense could only manage a cumulative of 3 points.
The Yoddhas were missing Jeeva Kumar and his experience, which could be seen in the lack of coordination among the defenders and a failure to show leadership in defense by Sagar Krishna.
What's next?
The Patna Pirates will again face off against the U.P. Yoddhas, who would be looking for revenge in the reverse fixture, at the Motilal Nehru School of Sports in Sonepat on Sunday the 14th of October.