UP Yoddhas put up a valiant fight, but go down to Puneri Paltans

UP Yoddhas, the franchisee owned by GMR Group put up a valiant show before going down 31-40 to Puneri Platans in their last home leg game of the 10th Pro Kabaddi League, at the Noida Indoor Stadium, Noida. Yoddhas who started on a slow note came back stronger in the latter half of the game with an all-round performance but unforced errors in the final five minutes of the game cost them dearly. For the Yoddhas, Captain Pardeep Narwal was the most successful raider with six points to his kitty, followed by Gagna Gowda and Vijay Malik who earned four and two points respectively. Amongst the defenders, Sumit and Nitesh both made their hi-five earning six and five points respectively. UP Yoddhas are now placed tenth in the pro kabaddi league standings with 21 points to their kitty.

UP Yoddhas will now face Tamil Thalaivas on 10th January 2024 at Mumbai. The match between UP Yoddhas and Tamil Thalaivas will be telecast LIVE on Star Sports Network and can be streamed LIVE on Disney Hotstar on 10th January 2024, 08:00 p.m. (IST) onwards.

UP Yoddhas lost the toss and were invited to raid first by Puneri Paltans. The Paltans started the game on aggressive note and kept pressing hard with back-to-back points. UP Yoddhas had to be on the backfoot as none of their raiders were working, while the Paltans kept attacking hard.

A super-tackle initiated by Nitesh in the first five minutes was the only ray of hope for the Yoddhas before having to face an All Out as early as the sixth minute of the first half. UP Yoddhas at this point were trailing behind by a margin of six points with the scorecard reading 4-10 in favour of the Paltans.

The Paltans maintained their attacking mode even after the Yoddhas regrouped, accumulating five really quick points while allowing only two to the latter. It was hereon with another Super Tackle from UP Yoddhas when fans got to see what are they made of. UP Yoddhas kept giving a strong fight for the rest of the game that started with Vijay Malik’s multi-point raid.

Pardeep Narwal hereon wreaked havoc on the Paltans as the Yoddhas added 14 points to their tally in the next 12 minutes before inflicting an All-Out in style on the Paltans in the 18th minute of the first half. The All-Out that was a result of a multi-point raid of Pardeep Narwal that also included a long struggle before Narwal’s hand crossed the line resulted in the Yoddhas now trailing by just two points. The first half thereafter came to an end with the score card reading 18-22 to the favour of Puneri Paltans.

The second half began with a re-energised UP Yoddhas pressing hard to equalize but failed to edge past the Paltans defensive line. UP Yoddhas kept accumulating points both on the offence and defense but an extremely agile Puneri Paltan was always a couple of points ahead. The Yoddhas had reduced their deficit to just two points with four minutes to go but unforced errors led them to face another All-Out from the Paltans in the 18th minute of the game. The game finally came to an end with UP Yoddhas going down 31-40 to Puneri Paltans.