Day 13 of the Pro Kabaddi League witnessed some close encounters between the teams. While U Mumba defeated Haryana Steelers in a thriller, Puneri Paltan showed their A-game against the top side Bengal Warriors and won the clash 27-25.
In the third game, three-time champions Patna Pirates secured their first victory of the season staging an impressive comeback against the table-toppers Dabang Delhi.
Let’s take a quick glance at the Day 13 roundup review of the exciting PKL Season 9:
Match 30: U Mumba 32-31 Haryana Steelers
Guman Singh started off well for U Mumba with an easy point in the very first raid of the match. After that, the whole team came out in full confidence and scored on a consecutive basis.
U Mumba’s defense was exceptional in the beginning, as they quickly sent the Steelers’ whole team to the bench in the first 8 minutes. The Men in Orange were not giving any chance to the Haryana Steelers’ raiders.
Though Haryana made a comeback at the end of the first half with some excellent defense from Amirhossain Bastami and Mohit Nandal, they fell short of just 2 points in the end. The half culminated with a 17-15 in favor of U Mumba, thanks to some exceptional show from U Mumba’s defense.
Surinder Singh, the captain of U Mumba, joined the party in the second half as he scored six tackle points out of eight in the game. When less than 10 minutes were left in the game, the Haryana Steelers’ defense tried their level best and came ahead of the Men in Orange.
This stunning comeback was just for a couple of minutes as U Mumba was riding high on luck. A couple of raids went in their favour, and the defense did the rest in the end.
Match 31: Puneri Paltan 27-25 Bengal Warriors
It was Fazel Atrachali’s day as he took his team across the line against the top-side Bengal Warriors. Atrachali scored 6 tackle points, including one super tackle. The skipper showed his skills in the beginning only to earn tackle points for his side, but the Bengal Warriors were not ready to give up.
Girish Maruti kept his nerves and took a lead for the Bengal Warriors in the first half. It was clear at that moment that Maninder Singh’s men would take this game, but destiny had some other plans.
Who would have thought that Paltan would show some magic in the next half? They actually did by scoring some tremendous tackle points thanks to Fazel Atrachali and Sombir. They actually turned the game for the Paltan, which could have gone the other way.
Just when the last four minutes left, Puneri were ahead with four points. All they had to do was to just maintain the lead, and they did exactly that to culminate the game with a margin of 2 points. Skipper Atrachali was the man to remember in this encounter with his phenomenal skills. In the end, it was Puneri Paltan, who won the battle by 27-25.
Match 32: Patna Pirates 37-33 Dabang Delhi
Naveen Kumar, who is in exceptional form, started off really well for his side. The defense also supported him, and the team took a good lead in the beginning. Rohit Gulia, who is the only one to score a Super 10 from Patna, earned a Super tackle and levelled the scores in the sixth minute of the game.
The game was moving steadily in the first half, with both sides going ahead by a single point till the 16th minute. After that, Delhi showed why they are the champions and took a splendid lead of five points courtesy of Naveen’s efforts at the crucial moment.
The second half started with the same flow, with Delhi ruling over Patna at every point. At that time, it looked like the Dabangs would go on to win the battle, but Patna had some other plans.
The Pirates did exceptionally well with an all-out that gave them a lead in the 10th minute of the second half. The showstopper, Rohit Gulia, showed his class towards the end by scoring a couple of raid points, which eventually made the Patna Pirates victorious by 37-33.