Bengaluru, Feb 9 (IANS): Raiders Pardeep Narwal and Surender Gill helped UP Yoddha beat Tamil Thalaivas 41-39 in the Vivo Pro Kabaddi League Season 8 match here on Wednesday. Both raiders secured Super 10s in a high-scoring game that was only decided in the final minute.
The result will help Yoddha increase their chances of making it to the Playoffs. Tamil Thalaivas matched UP blow for blow throughout the match but their lack of ALL OUTs eventually affected the outcome of the game. Manjeet scored a Super 10 (13 points) for the Tamil team.
The high-intensity first half saw both teams exchange the lead. Tamil Thalaivas, who did not have captain Surjeet Singh in the line-up, started on a positive note with their raiding duo of Ajinkya Pawar and Manjeet finding flaws in the UP defence. But Surender Gill slowly initiated a Yoddha fightback.
Pardeep Narwal soon joined him with a 3-point Super Raid in the 9th minute to shift the balance. Three Thalaivas defenders followed UP Yoddha's Shrikant Jadhav to the lobby without a touch which gave Yoddha another three points. A Super Tackle by Himanshu slowed Yoddha down temporarily but they eventually got an ALL OUT in the 15th minute.
That opened a 2-point lead for UP but Thalaivas immediately fought back with Himanshu clinching a 3-point Super Raid in the final minute of the first half. At the interval, Thalaivas had a 2-point lead with the scores 22-20.
Thalaivas started the second half on a positive note, but their usually reliable defence crumbled after the early minutes. Pardeep Narwal picked his Super 10 as Yoddha clinched another ALL OUT. Despite the advantage in the number of ALL OUTs, Yoddha could not extend the lead because they kept conceding easy Bonus Points to Tamil raiders.
Himanshu's clever raids gave the Tamil team an extra weapon as they slowly staged another comeback. There was nothing to separate the sides with 5 minutes remaining as both sets of raiders slowed down the pace of their raids.
Manjeet picked his Super 10 for Thalaivas but their defence, especially Abishek, made too many mistakes to give Yoddha a 3-point lead with a minute remaining. Surender Gill picked his Super 10 in the process. That gap proved too much for the Thalaivas to fight back as UP clinched a well-fought victory.