The Tamil Thalaivas defeated the Patna Pirates 56-37 on Tuesday at the SDAT Multi-Purpose Indoor Stadium in Chennai to wrap off their home leg. With his career-best performance (26 points) and 71st Super 10 in the league, Arjun Deshwal made it a night to remember and moved up to third position on the list of most Super 10s in PKL history.
Narender Kandola and Aashish contributed six and five points, respectively, while Nitesh Kumar also finished his High Five for the evening. They also had the highest points of any team in a game this season with 56. Ayan Lohchab and Ankit Rana both recorded Super 10s for the Patna Pirates, but it was insufficient for their team.
Arjun Deshwal and Ayan Lohchab, the two primary raiders, immediately opened the account for their respective factions. To create a narrow gap between the two teams, the latter first forced his way into the Tamil Thalaivas defense and secured a Super Raid. In order to keep the Pirates in the lead at first, Ankit Rana also contributed.
The hosts were kept within touching distance by Aashish and Himanshu, but they ultimately gave up the game’s first “all out” due to a tackle by Navdeep, which gave the Pirates a four-point lead. After the first 10 minutes, the score was 13-11, but the Thalaivas were still in the hunt despite the loss.
However, the home team quickly reversed the situation. The score was tied at 14–14 after a few of tackles from Nitesh Kumar and Aashish. The Thalaivas took a four-point advantage after the former got revenge with a tackle and a ‘all out’. Arjun found his rhythm and finished with his seventh Super 10 of the season, significantly extending that advantage.
Ankit Rana managed to keep the Pirates in the game with a few raids, but the home team’s momentum was unstoppable. With the score at 30-19 at the end of the first half, Tamil Thalaivas had established a dominant eleven-point advantage and stamped their influence on the match with their second ‘all out’.
The Pirates had an opening at the beginning of the second half after Ankit Rana finished his Super 10 and helped his side cut the gap to nine points. But to keep the Tamil Thalaivas in control of the game, Narender Kandola came out on top with a successful Do-Or-Die Raid, followed by a tackle from Arulnanthababu. Meanwhile, as his team kept fighting, Ayan Lohchab also recorded his Super 10.
With the Thalaivas in command, Nitesh Kumar recorded his fifth High Five of the year, and Arjun Deshwal kept up his pace as his team led by fourteen points with nearly eight minutes remaining. After a tackle by Aashish put his team in their third “all out” of the game, the score was 43-26, and the writing was on the wall.
To give the Patna Pirates supporters something to cheer about, Ayan Lohchab recorded a huge four-point Super Raid while fighting to the very end. Nevertheless, that had little bearing on the overall situation. Tamil Thalaivas won by 19 points thanks to a final-minute contribution from Arjun Deshwal, who finished with 26 points to cap off a historic evening for him and the best raider performance of the season.
