Patna Pirates, Haryana progress to semi-finals with contrasting wins

HYDERABAD: In a match that threatened to bring the house down with decibel levels soaring to the point of assaulting the ears, three-time champion Patna Pirates avenged its Season 8 final defeat to Dabang Delhi with a nerve-wracking 37-35 win to progress to the semi-finals of the 10th season of PKL here on Monday.

Patna will next take on table-topper Puneri Paltan on Wednesday for a place in the final. In the evening’s second Eliminator, Haryana Steelers steamrollered Gujarat Giants 42-25 to set up a tantalising semi-final against defending champion Jaipur Pink Panthers. Raider Vinay brought his ‘A’ game finishing with 12 points as the Gujarat defenders appeared clueless against him.

Earlier, Delhi captain Ashu Malik continued his rich vein of form scoring 19 points, but that would be of no solace to him on an evening when his team almost got the result it was yearning for until things went awry with time fast running out to fill them with despair. Sachin found an ably ally in the lanky Manjeet as the raiding duo finished the match with 14 points. Patna’s other raider M Sudhakar, too, made his presence felt as he finished with 5 points, with them coming when his team found itself in a corner.

The Eliminator 1 had the makings of a classic right from the beginning and there was little to separate the two teams that, understandably, took some time to size up the other. Patna’s talisman Sachin Tanwar, however, went for the jugular and earned his team two points on his first raid. His counterpart Ashu got on the scoring board in the fifth minute with a two-pointer. Patna surged ahead in the 11th minute, inflicting the match’s first ALL OUT to take a 12-5 lead.

That did little to deter Ashu as the Delhi captain won a brilliant 4-pointer in the 16th minute. Taking a cue from its captain, Delhi earned an ALL OUT of its own in the very next minute when Manjeet was tackled giving Delhi a slender one-point lead at 16-15. At half-time Delhi was ahead with the score reading 20-19 in its favour.

Ashu’s raiding spree showed no signs of abating as he won three points on a Dor or Die raid to give his team a three-point cushion at 23-20. Patna then unleashed the ace up its sleeve in the form of substitute raider Sandeep Kumar who displayed considerable nous in the face of mounting pressure. Sandeep, too, finished with an identical five points.

With the match increasingly looking like ending in a tie, Patna produced an ALL OUT in the last minute to take a 35-33 lead. That sounded the death knell for Delhi as it couldn’t claw its way back.