Patna: Patna Pirates began their home leg in fine fashion with a dominating 44-28 victory over Bengal Warriors in the Pro Kabaddi League match at the Patliputra Indoor Stadium in Patna on Friday. Manjeet (10 raid points), Nitin Kumar (10 raid points) and Mayur Kadam (6 tackle points) were the top performers of the game.

The last time these two sides played, it was a raid fest but that wasn’t the case this time around. Both sides banked on their defenders and two brilliant tackles from Mayur Kadam - one on Maninder Singh and the other on Nitin Kumar - put the home team ahead. Patna Pirates' ace raider Sachin wiped out the Bengal Warriors’ defence soon after to lead his men to an ALL OUT and a 13-7 lead in the 13th minute.

Patna Pirates dominated the remaining 7 minutes to reduce their opponents to 3 men at the end of the 1st half. It took them only 4 minutes to inflict the ALL OUT as Sachin, the newly-appointed Patna Pirates captain, got the better of the remaining 2 defenders. The home team had seized complete control of the game and some incredible raiding from Manjeet and Sachin put the Bengal Warriors in more trouble. Mayur, playing his first game of the season, executed a rock-solid tackle on Aditya Shinde to lead Patna Pirates to a 3rd ALL OUT. The three-time champions led by 22 points with the scoreline reading 34-12 in their favour.

Patna Pirates were in no mood to take their foot off the gas as multi-point raids from Sachin and Manjeet had the Bengal Warriors down to just 1 man in the 35th minute. However, the ALL OUT was stalled as Nitin produced a mindblowing 4-point raid to give his side something to cheer about. The Bengal Warriors managed an ALL OUT in the final minute of play, but that did not change the fate of the game as Patna Pirates soared to a comprehensive 16-point win.