Patna Pirates hammer Telugu Titans in PKL-5

Pardeep Narwal continued his stellar form, scoring 14 points to lead the Patna Pirates to a comfortable 46-30 win over Telugu Titans in the opening match of the Ranchi leg of Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) season 5 here on Friday.

Narwal was ably supported by Monu Goyat, who scored with 10 points.

Patna are now second in Zone B with 41 points from 12 matches while Telugu Titans are fourth in Zone B with 30 points from 16 games. This was the Titans' 11th defeat of the season as their dismal run in the tournament continued.

Patna skipper Narwal started with a super raid to take a 3-0 lead in the first minute while his opposite number Rahul Chaudhari scored with his first raid as the Titans trailed 2-4 after two minutes.

Patna Pirates wasted little time to inflict an all out as they led 10-2 after four minutes. Nilesh Salunke and Rahul then got raid points for the Titans as they trailed 7-11 in the seventh minute.

The Titans came back strongly as they inflicted an all out in the 11th minute to lead 12-11.

Both teams exchanged raid and tackle points in the next few minutes as it was 14-14 in the 13 th minute. Narwal made a successful raid in the 17th minute as Patna inflicted another all out to lead 21-16.

Patna recovered from Titans' onslaught as they led 23-16 at the end of the first half.

In the first five minutes of the second half both teams scored two points each as Patna led 25-18. Monu scored two raid points in quick succession to give Patna a 27-18 lead.

Patna lead 29-20 with 10 minutes left on the clock and looked on course to a comfortable win before Narwal attained his ninth super 10 of the season helping his side inflict an all out to lead 33-20 in the 31st minute.

Rahul scored a raid point in the 35th minute as Telugu Titans trailed 25-36 but Narwal foiled all hopes of Titans' comeback with a two-point raid in the next minute.

Monu scored with a two-point raid in the 37th minute as Patna Pirates went on to inflict another all out in the 39th minute to stretch their lead to 44-27.

In the dying minutes of the match, a tackle point was all the Titans could manage before succumbing to a 30-46 defeat.

--IANS

tri/dg