Patiala Falcons Win Sixth National Kabaddi League Title, Beat Jaipur Storm 38-34 in Final

Patiala Falcons won the sixth National Kabaddi League title on Saturday night, beating Jaipur Storm 38-34 in the final at the SAI Stadium in Bhubaneswar. It is the second title for the Falcons, and both have come within their last four seasons. The match began at nine in the evening and ran for roughly eighty minutes; the margin never opened beyond four points until the final raid. The first half told a different story. Jaipur Storm raced to a 7-2 lead inside five minutes, with raider Aditya Rathore landing three successful raids in succession and unsettling the Falcons defence. In the sixth minute Rathore pulled off a do-or-die raid worth two points, sending two Falcons defenders to the bench. The momentum began to shift in the twelfth minute. Falcons captain Vikram Singh produced a super tackle to remove Rathore, and in the very next minute raider Surjeet Nayak picked up two points to cut the deficit to 9-10. By the fifteenth minute the scores were level at 13-13. Jaipur edged ahead again in the last three minutes of the half, with captain Manish Chaudhary completing two successful raids, and the first half ended 17-15 in their favour. At the interval, Falcons head coach Ramesh Pawar asked his side to focus on its defensive formation above everything else. The Falcons opened the second half with four unanswered points to move to 19-17. In the nineteenth minute Rohit Yadav tackled Chaudhary, and Nayak added a point on the next raid. Jaipur's defensive lines were visibly ragged during this passage, and the Falcons raiders kept exploiting the gaps. The decisive passage came in the twenty-fourth minute. Three Jaipur raiders failed to return in the same raid cycle, two of them tackled and one stepping over the wrong line. The Falcons collected the all-out and the score moved to 27-20. Over the next three minutes they controlled possession and denied Jaipur long spells on the mat. Jaipur refused to fold. Chaudhary registered two super raids to bring the score to 30-27, and in the thirty-sixth minute another successful raid made it 33-31. Around twelve thousand spectators were on their feet, and the tension in the stands was unmistakable. But on the very next raid, Falcons defender Rohit Yadav tackled Chaudhary to restore a four-point cushion. That tackle effectively settled the contest, because Jaipur were left with only two raids and needed four points from them. In the closing two minutes Surjeet Nayak picked up two points to close out the match. Nayak was named Player of the Final, having contributed eleven raid points and two tackle points. He received the trophy along with a cash award of fifteen thousand rupees. The match statistics showed the Falcons' 38 points split almost evenly between raiding and tackling. They collected 21 raid points and 14 tackle points and achieved three all-outs. Jaipur managed 19 raid points and 12 tackle points. The two teams combined for 26 tackle points, more than in either of the previous two finals. Surjeet Nayak was the best raider of the match, while Falcons captain Vikram Singh was the best tackler with six tackle points. For Jaipur, Manish Chaudhary was the standout performer with 14 raid points, accounting for roughly forty per cent of his team's total score on his own. Speaking after the match, Falcons head coach Ramesh Pawar said: "For the first ten minutes we were under pressure and our defenders were slow to reach their positions. We changed the plan, pushed the defence higher up and gave the raider more time. The all-out in the twenty-fourth minute was the turning point for us." Pawar added that the team had worked on its defensive structure throughout the season and that the effort showed in the final. According to him, the side deliberately experimented with slow starts in its last four group matches to build the habit of playing under pressure. Captain Vikram Singh said: "We lost in the semi-final last season. We remembered that defeat all year. Today, when the score was 33-31, that moment came back to us and we did not make a single mistake. Our target is not only to win the title but to maintain this standard next season as well." Jaipur Storm coach Anil Deshmukh attributed the defeat to lapses in defence. "We had a seven-point lead in the first half, but what happened in the twenty-fourth minute was the weakest passage of our match. Three raiders going out together is not acceptable. We could not fix that flaw through the season," he said. Jaipur captain Manish Chaudhary expressed disappointment but took heart from his team's run. "We reached the final, which is saying something given that nobody rated us as contenders at the start of the season. Two or three moments decided the difference, and those moments will stay with us," he said. The Falcons' starting seven featured Surjeet Nayak and Akash Tomar as raiders, with Vikram Singh, Rohit Yadav, Jaspreet Singh Sandhu, Harmeet Singh and Umesh Patil in defence. All-rounder Nitish Kumar was brought on as the seventh player on the mat. The Falcons made two changes in the second half. Aditya Verma replaced Akash Tomar and picked up two crucial tackle points in the last ten minutes. Sachin Gaikwad came on for Umesh Patil and completed a cover tackle in the twenty-third minute. In the league phase the Falcons won fifteen of their twenty-two matches and finished second in the points table. They scored 812 points across those 22 matches, the second-highest tally of the season. In defence they collected 196 tackle points, the highest figure in the entire campaign. In the semi-final the Falcons beat Patna Raiders 42-36. Nayak scored 16 points in that match and added seven on his own in the last five minutes to carry his team to victory. Jaipur beat Mumbai Meteors 39-31 in the other semi-final. The Falcons suffered two early setbacks this season. Senior defender Harmeet Singh picked up an injury in the first match and was out for three weeks. In their second match the team lost by 18 points, their heaviest defeat of the campaign. Coach Pawar subsequently rebalanced the side between raiding and defence. The team's main concern in the group stage was its raiding. Across the first eight matches its raid strike rate hovered around 38 per cent, but by the end of the season it had climbed to 46 per cent. Pawar added separate morning sessions for the raiders midway through the season, working purely on line and lobby play. The sixth season of the National Kabaddi League began on 12 September and featured 11 teams. A total of 132 matches were played, the most in the league's history, compared with 110 last season. The competition was staged in seven cities this time instead of four. According to the organisers, average attendance rose by about 18 per cent compared with the previous year, with an average of 9,400 spectators per match. Viewership grew on television and on digital platforms, with the league recording 210 million digital views. Kabaddi analysts believe defence carried greater weight this season than before. The two teams combined for 26 tackle points in the final, more than in the previous two finals. The pattern suggests teams are no longer content to rely on raiding alone and are investing more heavily in defensive structure. Former player and commentator Sandeep Bhosale said: "The difference in this final was not talent, it was discipline. The Falcons did not attempt a single unnecessary raid in the last ten minutes and used the clock intelligently. That is the mark of experience." Surjeet Nayak, the star of the final, is being seen as the find of the season. The 22-year-old from Cuttack in Odisha scored 198 points in his debut campaign and has been nominated in the Emerging Player category. He registered five super raids over the season. "I had been waiting for this moment for three years," Nayak said. "Playing at state level, I used to think the opportunity would never come. The biggest lesson here has been that talent is not enough; daily work and video analysis matter just as much." At the end of the season the league management said it is considering adding two new teams, which would take the total to 13. A proposal to extend the season to 15 weeks is also under review. A final decision is expected by March next year. The Falcons, meanwhile, are focused on retaining their core group. Both Rohit Yadav and Vikram Singh are under contract through next season. Team management said talks to extend Surjeet Nayak's contract by two seasons are in their final stage. Coach Pawar's contract also runs through next season. At the closing ceremony the Falcons players carried the trophy around the stadium as the stands chanted their name. Team owners and the state sports minister were among those present. Crowds lingered outside the stadium well into the night after the match. With this win the Falcons have, across their last four seasons, taken two titles, one runners-up finish and one semi-final appearance. The team will now target becoming the first side to win three titles. The league's next season is expected to begin in March 2026.