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The Patna leg of Season 5 of the Pro Kabaddi League is now in the books, ending with the UP Yoddha defeating the home team, the Patna Pirates, in an exciting high-scoring affair last night. Barring a few encounters, most matches in the Ranchi leg turned out to be high-scoring contests thanks to the raiders coming good.
As we set ourselves up for the next leg of the journey, here's a quick look back at the raiders who set the stage alight with their performances in Ranchi.
#5 Deepak Narwal (Bengal Warriors)
The Patna Pirates must be sick of seeing this man's face.
The Bengal Warriors played just the one game in this leg and it came against the home team. If there's one team the Pirates haven't been able to get the better of this season, it is the Warriors -- losing once and tying the other in their two previous meetings before this one.
The tie was a dramatic encounter where the Pirates gave up a huge 12-point lead in the final three minutes to only tie the game. Deepak Narwal was the star on that night and he repeated his heroics this past week in Ranchi.
After having had a brilliant opening to the season, Deepak had been sidelined through injury and forced to miss a lot of matches in the past couple of weeks. He did not start this game either, entering the game only after 10 minutes, as the Warriors' coach opted to take out Young Chan Ko and put him in instead. With his left shoulder heavily strapped, he began gingerly and one wondered if he would be able to deliver his best for his side.
But he did just that, playing a key role along with Maninder Singh in the Warriors' superb comeback late in the game. The Warriors were down 23-32 with just over 10 minutes remaining when they started their comeback.
Deepak finished with 10 crucial points on the night in a stellar showing. Though Maninder scored more, the fact that Deepak came on as a sub only after 10 minutes and still scored a Super 10 sees him make this list.
#4 Sachin (Gujarat Fortunegiants)
The team from Gujarat had seen a downswing in their fortunes after the massive high that they were on after their home leg. Much of it had been due to their raid department misfiring with some of their youngsters having gone cold. Going into their match against U Mumba, coach Manpreet Singh was looking for a change in fortunes against a team that was in form.
The Fortunegiants came into the encounter with just one win in their last five. In contrast, U Mumba were riding a four-match win streak. However, the Fortunegiants put in an inspired performance to snap U Mumba's streak, inflicting a 39-28 defeat on the Season 2 champions.
Sachin came to the party at just the right time for the Fortunegiants, scoring 13 points from his 18 raids, displaying an amazing strike rate. His confidence was back, he looked sharp and he made U Mumba pay for their defensive errors.
Buoyed by that win, the Fortunegiants picked up another win over U Mumba when they met for the second time this past week. However, it was an even more comprehensive win this time around as the Fortunegiants thrashed U Mumba 45-23, winning by a massive 22 points.
Sachin once again shone brightly with his strike rate proving lethal once more as he helped himself to another Super 10, scoring 10 points off just 14 raids. His return to form this week meant the Gujarat side won both their encounters and in the process maintained their 100% win record over U Mumba.
#3 Nitin Tomar (UP Yoddha)
Just as was the case with the Gujarat Fortunegiants and U Mumba, the Patna Pirates and UP Yoddha faced each other twice during the course of this leg.
Fans were treated to two mouth-watering clashes, one on the second night in Ranchi and one on the final night. The teams split the contests, with each side winning one, but Yoddha captain Nitin Tomar was exceptional in both encounters.
In their first meeting last Saturday, the two teams produced a thriller of a contest where momentum swung both ways right through the encounter. However, they fell short in the end, losing by a mere three points, 42-45 in a high-scoring encounter.
Nitin led the way for his side with 14 raid points and he was tackled just twice in the entire match, both in the second half.
After having come so close the first time, the Yoddha were keen to actually get the win when they met last evening and initially it looked like they were going to crush the home team. They came out like a team on a mission as they quickly jumped out to an 18-4 lead in just 10 minutes. They didn't let that lead slip, maintaining a 30-16 lead with two minutes gone in the second.
Despite the Pirates' late comeback attempt, the Yoddha managed to stay ahead and Nitin Tomar was sensational as he finished with 16 raid points on the night. He even chipped in with two tackle points.
So in two games in this leg, Nitin finished with 30 raid points against the two-time champions, Patna Pirates. A colossal showing indeed.
Nitin's superb week in Ranchi sees him take third place from Rohit Kumar in the raid points tally for this season.
#2 Monu Goyat (Patna Pirates)
If you were to look at the top raiders in Season 5 of the PKL, you wouldn't be surprised to see Pardeep Narwal top of the charts. The man in second place though is not Rahul Chaudhari or Rohit Kumar, but Monu Goyat, his Patna teammate.
The dynamic duo of Pardeep and Monu have been a key reason why the Pirates have enjoyed much success thus far despite their defence not exactly covering themselves in glory.
Monu Goyat has been brilliant to watch; he goes about his work in such a subdued manner, completely under the radar with Pardeep hogging all the attention. He doesn't make much of a fuss, no extravagant celebrations when he picks up points, just goes about his business quietly and effectively. His running hand touch on the opponent's right corner has been almost unguardable. His brilliance has allowed Pardeep to take more risks and wreak more havoc, safe in the knowledge that he can be quickly revived by Monu.
He finished with 54 points from the home leg in his six matches, averaging nine points a game. No other second raider has done this well in support of a lead raider for any other team. Twice this week, he even outscored Pardeep - against the Bengaluru Bulls and Tamil Thalaivas - where he was the main man. The game against the Thalaivas in particular, the Pirates could attribute their win more to Monu as the Thalaivas defence had contained the threat of Pardeep Narwal.
It's telling that the only game that the Pirates lost in their entire home leg was the game where Monu Goyat picked up his least points of the lot. Last night against the Yoddha, he had just four, and the Pirates went on to lose their only home game after having won all five previously.
#1 Pardeep Narwal (Patna Pirates)
The two-time defending champions enjoyed such a successful home leg primarily due to the success of their dynamic raiding duo of Pardeep Narwal and Monu Goyat. We've already spoken about how brilliant Monu has been and the superlative are sometimes just enough for the star himself, Pardeep Narwal.
For other raiders, a Super 10 is something huge, but when Pardeep picks up a Super 10 its almost like the bare minimum that we have come to expect from him. Such has been his growth and this season he has just been dishing out one five-star performance after another. Early in the week, in his team's first clash against UP Yoddha, he took a knee to the head during a raid and was forced to miss some time. Yet he came back a few minutes later with a bandaged hand to lead his side to victory.
He played all the remaining matches with that bandage, but it didn't seem to affect him one bit as he put in a Super 10 in all but one game in Ranchi - the lone exception being the game against the Tamil Thalaivas.
He finished with 75 points this week from six matches making him our top raider. He also broke Rahul Chaudhari's record for most consecutive Super 10s in PKL and also crossed the 400 raid points mark overall in PKL for his career. He is no longer just the 'Dubki King', he is the new king of all raiders.
