Pro Kabaddi League: Patna Pirates beat Telugu Titans 43-36

Hyderabad: Patna Pirates handed Telugu Titans their fifth straight defeat with a 43-36 win in the Vivo Pro Kabaddi league in Hyderabad on Thursday. It was Patna's star raider Pardeep Narwal who led the charge and scored 12 points. He was ably supported by Monu Goyat who scored 10 points. Although Rahul Chaudhari sparked back into life and scored 12 points for Titans, it wasn't enough as Patna ran out comfortable winners.

Patna jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first two minutes as both Narwal and Goyat scored raid points. Nilesh Salunke opened Titans' account in the third minute as they trailed 1- 3. It was an even contest for the first seven minutes as both teams were tied at 6-6.

Nilesh Salunke scored with a two-point raid in the 12^th minute to level the game at 12-12. With four minutes left in the first half, Pardeep Narwal scored more points as Patna led 19-15. Patna Pirates ended the first half leading 23-16.

The second half saw Patna completely dominate the proceedings. They scored 11 points in a row as Titans could muster just a single point. Rahul Chaudhari was the sole contributor for Titans and kept on scoring points. Rakesh Kumar was solid at the back but the defence couldn't contain either Goyat or Narwal. With less than 5 minutes left on the clock, Patna had an unassailable 14-point lead. Titans had to limit the damage and reduce the deficit to seven points.

Chaudhari's persistence paid off and Titans reduced the gap to seven as they lost 36-43. Pirates jumped into an early lead and never loosened its grip on the match as Narwal kept logging points with effective work. It was Pirates' second win over Titans in the ongoing edition and they continued the domination with an all-round display. In what was the last match of the Hyderabad leg, the Titans could not rise to the occasion and slumped to yet another defeat, leaving them a lot to do in the league.