Monu Goyat produced one of the most scintillating displays of raiding, scoring seven points in a single raid, as Patna Pirates came from behind to stun defending champions Bengal Warriors 44-30 in match 24 of Pro Kabaddi Season 8 on Friday.
The win propelled Patna Pirates to second on the points table as Bengal Warriors stood at the eighth position.
Patna Pirates started on a bang picking up raid points through Sachin and Prashanth Kumar but were soon found wanting more against Bengal Warriors’ Maninder Singh.
Maninder, the star raider, brought out his best as he left the Pirates looking for answers from all corners of the mat.
He picked up points at will and overpowered all defensive tactics to return to his half in a jiffy with every passing raid.
Patna’s defensive tactics too looked in place for the first few minutes as Bengal Warriors struggled to keep up with the pace of the match.
It was Maninder who helped the defending champions pick up the lead at 11-9 when he sent Monu Goyat and Mohammadreza Chiyaneh to the bench in a single raid.
He soon sent Prashanth Kumar on his way in his next raid as Bengal Warriors opened a four-point lead.
Patna Pirates soon lost their way and found all their players on the mat as Bengal Warriors led by a healthy 16-10.
Maninder soon registered his Super 10 when he escaped from Chiyaneh’s ankle hold as the defending champions started to call the shots with an eight-point lead.
Sachin and Monu Goyat then tried to put Patna back in the game as they slowly tried to reduce the arrears with bonus points and running touches but Bengal called the shots at halftime with a 21-16 scoreline.
Bengal Warriors upped their defensive game after the break when Amit tackled Sachin with a thigh hold.
A contest within a contest between Maninder and Chiyaneh was brewing, and it was the Maninder who emerged on top in the Indo-Iran battle. Maninder got a shoulder touch as Chiyaneh was trying to retreat after a tackle attempt.
Patna Pirates slowly tried to crawl into the game, reducing the deficit to just three points, through Neeraj Kumar and Monu Goyat, who scored his 500th raid point.
Neeraj came up with good defensive work, tackling Rishank Devadiga, and Monu was good with his raids, going deep and scoring a bonus point.
A moment of failure from Maninder when he stepped out of the mat gave Patna Pirates an opening and they tried to capitalize on that. From then it was a Patna Pirates show as they upped the ante.
Bengal Warriors soon stuttered as Rishank Devadiga lost his footing, Sachin got a running touch on Amit Nirmal and Neeraj held on to Ravindra Kumavat both teams were on level terms at 25-25.
Patna Pirates soon took a four-point lead when Sachin reduced two Bengal defenders to size and inflicted an all-out on the defending champions. Maninder too looked off-colour as he tumbled to Chiyaneh’s defensive strategy as Bengal looked all at sea.
Monu Goyat then brought up a sensational seven-point raid as Patna Pirates raced to a 14-point lead at 39-25. In the process, Monu also registered his Super 10 of the match.
He skipped past one defender, dodged another and then wriggled past the remaining defenders as he came to his half in a jiffy to put his team in the driver’s seat.
The lead swelled with each passing raid as Patna Pirates stamped their authority of the match as Bengal Warriors walked out of the match with no points.
Featured photo: Pro Kabaddi
