Pune: Haryana Steelers and Patna Pirates played out an action-packed and intense match in the Badminton Hall at the Balewadi Sports Complex, here.
It was a match that saw plenty of raw emotions on display from both teams, but eventually Haryana Steelers came away with a 42-36 win on Friday night.
For Haryana Steelers, Shivam Patare scored 11 points and Mohammadreza Shadloui bagged 9 points, while Sanjay registered an impressive High 5.
In the opposite corner, Devank finished with 13 points and also reached the 200-point mark in his 16th game of the season. Devank is also the current highest scoring raider in PKL Season 11.
Haryana Steelers and Patna Pirates have both been in fine form so far in the competition and the two teams came out of the blocks with good pace as they kept up with each other in the initial stages of the game.
After that though, Haryana Steelers started to get their act going with Shivam Patare and Mohammadreza Shadloui taking charge.
Midway through the first half, the three-time champions had a slender lead with the in-form Devank and Ankit scoring the majority of the points.
As the half wore on, Devank, Navdeep and Ankit started to control proceedings for Patna Pirates. With about five minutes left in the half, Devank inflicted an All-Out on Haryana Steelers and gave his side a 4-point advantage.
At the half-time break, Patna Pirates led 17-16.
Minutes into the second half, Devank notched up his 200th raid point and was marching on towards yet another Super 10.
Shivam Patare then responded with a Super Raid and Haryana Steelers’ defence followed it up with an All-Out on Patna Pirates, bringing the difference between the two teams down to a point.
The battle was starting to really heat up as Devank came back with a three-point raid of his own. After that Mohammadreza Shadloui’s Super Tackle helped him get to his High 5, after which Haryana Steelers went through the gears and took the lead.
At the half-hour mark, the game was very much on a knife-edge with both sets of players looking to go for the kill.
As the final 10 minutes of play began, Shivam Patare wasted no time in completing his Super 10 as Haryana Steelers raced into a 4-point lead and wrestled away the momentum from their opponents.
Haryana Steelers then landed another All-Out with five minutes to go and stretched their lead to 7 points. On the home stretch, Haryana Steelers picked up the pace and drove home their advantage to walk away with an outstanding win.
