PKL 2019 | Dabang Delhi eye Patna Pirates game to stay unbeaten at home
After winning the three games at the Thyagraj Sports Complex, Dabang Delhi KC will want to gift their fans another win when they will take on Patna Pirates in their last game at home. With Naveen Kumar, Joginder Narwal and Ravinder Pahal in top form, Delhi are high on confidence ahead of the battle.
Till the Delhi leg, PKL 7 had a trend in which the home teams failed to perform. However, Dabang Delhi have completely changed the narrative and they now have three wins under their belt at home. The coach was quite vocal about breaking the home jinx and his boys have made him happy as Delhi is the only team in the league to have three wins at home in season 7. Apart from Naveen, players like Pahal and Joginder have also performed well on the mat in the last three matches which have made Delhi a deadly unit at the moment.
The leg started with the game against defending champions Bengaluru Bulls on Saturday and Rohit Kumar and co. were outplayed in the second half of that match thanks to a great show by raider Naveen Kumar. Delhi managed to beat Bengaluru by a small margin of 33-31 and apart from Naveen’s 13 raid points, Pahal stepped up in defence with four points. Prior to the game, the Bulls had a reputation of performing exceedingly well in the second half but things were different at the Thyagraj Sports Complex. Pawan Sehrawat was kept silent by some advance blocks by Vishal Mane and Pahal and Bengaluru had to finish as the second-best side of the evening.
Coach Krishan Kumar Hooda had taken a wise call of bringing in Meraj Sheykh in place of Chandran Ranjit with 13 minutes to go in that game and that decision also paid off for the home side as he picked up some quick points to help the Delhi side stay ahead in the last few minutes against Bengaluru. It was a great comeback which showed Delhi’s tough nature since they had gone into the break trailing 11-19.
 © PKLThe game against UP Yoddha was not that difficult for the Delhi-based side as the neighbouring club had been struggling to find wins in the tournament. Things went as expected and it was yet another Naveen Kumar and Ravinder Pahal show to help Delhi script an easy win. Although it was a game when Monu Goyat came to the party for UP, his younger teammate from the Services side Naveen took away the match from UP with 16 raid points. Pahal, at the right corner, proved again why he is considered as one of the dangerous defenders in the history of the league with five tackle points.
However, many kabaddi experts and kabaddi fans were eagerly waiting to see Naveen taking on Fazel Atrachali as Delhi faced Mumba in their third home game. A lot was expected from the Mumba defenders to stop Naveen’s juggernaut and restrict him equalling Pardeep Narwal’s record of eight consecutive Super 10s. But all those speculations were put to rest by a dominating show by the two corner defenders of Dabang Delhi with both Pahal and Joginder registering their respective High 5s. Right corner Pahal was the star of the game as he scored eight tackle points from eight attempts in the game.Â
The game between Mumba and Delhi started with Delhi being behind in the first few minutes and the first half was evenly contested. However, change of sides also changed the fortunes in Delhi’s favour. Apart from Pahal and Joginder, Naveen stepped up for the team from the national capital and he dominated the action in the second half. Naveen equalled Pardeep’s record and also collected 11 raid points and Delhi won by a huge margin of 40-24. Fazel, who was considered as the player to stop Naveen scored four tackle points and had to get out on five occasions while attempting to stop the Delhi raiders on Wednesday.
The performance in the first three games at home shows how the Delhi team is placed at the moment in their home leg and in the league. They have 44 points from 10 games and have eight wins so far. They will now take on against the three-time champions in the last game and all they would expect is an unbeaten run at home. Pahal is in great form and so is their skipper apart from their star raider who has now got a nickname – Naveen Express because of his consistent show in the seventh edition of the league.Â
Patna, on the other hand, are in last place on the table with only three wins in the season. Ram Mehar Singh and his boys are under huge pressure and there is a lot expected from Pardeep as well. With the kind of form Pahal is in, Pardeep, who is a left-side raider, might find it really difficult in the last game. Delhi’s management knows that Pardeep is the only one player who can turn things around for Patna and if Pahal shines on Friday, Delhi can achieve their target of winning all their home games in the seventh season.