JOIN USBengaluru bow down to Pirates' might
After springing a surprise in their first fixture, the Bengaluru Bulls were brought crashing down to earth by the Patna Pirates who scored a comprehensive 33-24 victory here at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium on Wednesday.
Having opened up a ten-point gap in the first half, Patna dominated after the break as well to hand Bengaluru their first loss of the tournament, while raking up their second win in as many games.
Former Bulls star Rajesh Mondal (5 points) starred for the Pirates alongside Rohit Kumar (8 points).
With a 2000-odd crowd boisterously backing the home side, the young and inexperienced Bulls side began well defensively.
But in offfense, Surjeet Narwal and Amit Rathi found it hard to get going against Sandeep Narwal, who defended resolutely.
Bengaluru kept pace with their opponents for the first ten minutes of the game with the scores at 8-9 in favour of Patna but a few elementary errors widened the gap between the two sides.
Rohit and Mondal began scoring points at will for the Pirates with successive raids as the Bulls' backline lacked co-ordination.
Deepak Kumar Dahiya, who did well for the Bulls against Dabang Delhi, was found wanting and failed on numerous raids leaving Patna firmly in control of the tie.
The key moment came when Patna received a lona point and found themselves with a massive 17-8 lead and then went on to end the first half with a 10-point advantage (20-10).
The initial few minutes of the second half saw both teams exchange points with no significant change to the difference in points. The lone bright spot for Bengaluru was Rathi (8 points), who found his feet and began scoring well with his raids.
But the Bulls continued to falter in defence and left themselves a mountain to climb with the scoreboard reading 19-28 and only five minutes left to play.
Bengaluru's Pawan Kumar tried to up the ante with a couple of good raids in the closing few minutes but the result looked a foregone one.
The Patna side continued to maintain their composure and kept the scoreboard ticking while strangling the Bulls and ensuring the deficit wasn't reduced.
Though the Bulls can take heart from the fact that they made a valiant comeback in the second half, pipping their opponents 14-13. With one win and a loss, Bengaluru Bulls are still on five points while the Patna Pirates have collected 10 points.
Bengaluru will be hoping to overcome Wednesday's loss when they take on the Bengal Warriors in Thursday's fixture.
Result: Bengaluru Bulls: 24 lt to Patna Pirates: 33.