Two-time reigning champions Patna Pirates drew with Bengal Warriors to kick off the Mumbai leg at the NSCI Stadium. The Pirates, who began as the favourites with a 6-1 head to head record over the Bengal Warriors, played with utmost dominance. But a late comeback from the Warriors saw Pirates lose a game which was almost theirs.

The Warriors came into the game with a close win over the U.P. Yoddha in their previous match before meeting the defending champions. But their momentum was hurt badly with this failed showdown.

By the half time, it seemed like the game had tilted in the favour of Patna Pirates finished with 24 points as opposed to 11 managed by Warriors.

The Bengal defence looked completely clueless about Pardeep’s raids. The likes of Monu Goyal and Vinod Kumar also played a great support act to the “Dubki King.” Vishal Mane at the forefront of the defence made scoring even tougher for the Warriors.

In the second half, the equation looked pretty competitive as Warriors made a commendable attempt to crawl their way back into the game but it was entirely unsuccessful eventually.

The proceeding began with Bengal pocketing a couple of crucial points beginning with a do-or-die raid which Deepak Narwal brilliantly executed.

Unfortunately, in the meantime, Deepak was super tackled by Pirates’ defence thereby gaining 2 points while Vishal Mane blocked Kuldeep to help Pirates march ahead to make the score line read – 16-30

However, later, a feisty show of grit saw Warriors make a solid comeback and nearly narrowly the lead completely. The huge lead built earlier by Pirates came handy as they escaped the loss with a 36-36 equation.