Mumbai, Jan 5 Former champions Patna Pirates made a valiant second-half comeback but fell agonisingly short by one point in a 37-38 defeat to Dabang Delhi KC in a Season10 match of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) at the Dome by NSCI here on Friday.
Dabang Delhi's Ashu Malik (10 points) and Patna Pirates raiders Sachin (10 points) and M. Sudhakar (9 points) were the standout performers of the evening.
In a blistering first-half performance, Dabang Delhi inflicted two All-Outs on the Pirates. The first was within the first 10 minutes, as they took a five-point lead, and the second followed merely six minutes later to give them a 10-point advantage.
Dabang Delhi KC's raiders, Malik, Meetu Sharma and Manjeet logged an incredible 13 points from 20 raids in the first half, leaving the Patna Pirates chasing shadows. Malik in particular was not tackled even once in the first half thus registering a Super Raid with a minute left in the half. Time and again Sachin had pulled the Pirates out of trouble in the season, but on the day, he was subdued by a confident Dabang Delhi KC defence as they took a 13 points advantage into the break.
The Patna Pirates defence finally clicked in the second half, and inflicted an All-Out of their own, to cut the lead down to six points. Sachin came to life soon after, registering a Super Raid to take out Ashish, Vikrant and Mohit to pull them closer.
The Patna Pirates surge continued through the half, as Sachin and M. Sudhakar's brilliant raiding kept them within three points till late in the game. In the end, though, Dabang Delhi KC held on by running down the clock to take the win.
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