Patna down Pune to leap to top of table

Patna Pirates subdued a fighting Puneri Paltan 31-28 to shoot to the top of the Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League table here today.
Pardeep Narwal did the star turn for Pirates with his brilliant raiding that got him 12 touch points while Bhajirao Hodage kept their defense tight and came up with five tackle points including a super tackle.
Pune were kept in the hunt by captain Deepak Hooda (8 raid points) and Ajay Thakur (6 raid points) along with defender Somvir Shekar (3 tackle points).
The victory, ninth from 12 games, lifted Pirates to the top of the table with 47 points in their kitty while dumping Pune to the fifth spot with 32 points from as many games.

After level chugging in the first ten minutes of play, Pirates upped the tempo and led their rivals 10-4 with seven minutes left for half time and then were in front 15-10 at the end of 20 minutes.
This proved to be a handy lead as try as they did in the game of catch-up Pune could not approach their rivals' tally. At one stage the lead widened to 10 (22-12) after Narwal's successful raid for Pirates.
Pune did well to reduce the leeway by six points but could not stop the rampaging Narwal from raiding successfully. Pirates were up 29-21 and in the end just could not overhaul their rivals' score in spite of some inspired raiding by Hooda.

The winners effected two all-outs to their rivals' one.