UP Yoddha showed great composure and planning as they beat struggling Telugu Titans 39-33 in Match 56 of the Pro Kabaddi League Season 8 at The Sheraton Grand, Whitefield, in Bengaluru. Yoddha were better in all the departments with their raiders – Pardeep Narwal (10), Shrikant Jadhav (7) and Surender Gill (7) – picking up valuable points. Telugu Titans had a great opportunity to make a comeback by inflicting an ALL OUT on Yoddha in the final minutes but captain Rohit Kumar’s decision to go raiding backfired. Rajnish and Ankit Beniwal scored 9 points each for the Titans who are without a win in Season 8.
Telugu Titans had Rohit Kumar back in the starting 7 but that didn’t really add to the raiding efforts in the first half. Rajnish and Ankit Beniwal showed glimpses of their immense potential, but the half surely belonged to Yoddha who had a clear plan for the Titans. Their defensive corner duo of Sumit and Nitesh Kumar found form after the initial raids making life difficult for the young Telugu raiders.
At the other end Pardeep Narwal, Shrikant Jadhav and Surender Gill took turns to eat away points from the defence. Together, they inflicted an ALL OUT on the Titans with 7 minutes remaining for halftime to open a 3-point lead. Yoddha managed the time on the mat very well and ended the half on top with scores 19-14.
U.P. continued to dominate the early minutes of the second half with Surender Gill scoring points in raids. He was ably backed by Nitesh Kumar who clinched his High 5 as Yoddha sensed an ALL OUT. But Titans’ Prince D. produced a stunning Super Tackle on Surender Gill and Ankit Beniwal pushed Nitesh out of bounds to keep Yoddha at touching distance.
U.P. had a 3-point advantage going into the last minutes but with just two men on the mat, they were staring at an ALL OUT. But Yoddha produced two successive Super Tackles to stretch the lead again. Adarsh’s 2-point raid again reduced the lead again for Titans, but Yoddha's Pardeep Narwal held his nerves on multiple occasions to prevent an ALL OUT. His calmness in the final minute raids got him a Super 10 and helped U.P. clinch a 6-point win in the second match of Triple Panga night.
Dabang Delhi down Haryana Steelers
The Haryana Steelers fought their hearts out but went down 25-28 against Dabang Delhi KC iin the other match on Saturday.
The two sides played out a neck-and-neck contest until the Delhi side affected two crucial raids in the dying minutes of the match to pull off a thrilling victory.
Dabang Delhi KC got off to a good start and took a 6-3 lead in the opening minutes of the match. However, Meetu pulled off a fantastic raid in the 6th minute and moments later, the Steelers affected a great tackle and got close to Delhi’s score.
But, the Delhi team carried out a tackle and a raid in the 11th minute and stayed in the lead at 9-6. The Haryana side made a brilliant tackle in the 13th minute and stayed in the contest. The Steelers pulled off a great tackle in the 15th minute, but the Delhi side still held the lead at 10-8.
Kandola pulled off a top-quality raid and handed his team a two-point lead at 23-21. However, the Delhi side fought back and levelled the scores at 23-23. Dabang Delhi KC pulled off a Super Raid in the dying minutes of the match and closed out the victory at 28-25.
U Mumba play stalemate with Bengal Warriors
The other match saw a thrilling 32-all tie between U Mumba and Bengal Warriors. It was a Maninder Singh show for Bengal Warriors, who picked up 17 raid points, while U Mumba was kept afloat by Abhishek Singh with 13 raid points. This was Maninder Singh’s eighth super 10 in ten matches while it was Abhishek’s fourth in ten games.
With this result, U Mumba move to the sixth position with 28 points while the Bengal Warriors are placed eighth with 25 points on the league’s points table.
