Tamil Thalaivas won a thrilling match against Bengal Warriors 35-30, while UP Yoddhas defeated Gujarat Giants 35-31 in the Pro Kabaddi League on Monday.
The Gachibowli Indoor Stadium hosted two heated Pro Kabaddi League games on Monday in Hyderabad. The Bengal Warriors and Tamil Thalaivas battled first in the doubleheader, with the Chennai-based team winning 35-30. The UP Yoddhas defeated the Gujarat Giants 35-31 in the second game of the evening, which was a close contest between the two teams. While the scoreboard might suggest that the teams had an easy time of it, the real stories behind the matches were quite different. Here is how the matches unfolded.
Pardeep Narwal leads the UP Yoddhas to victory over the Gujarat Giants
UP Yoddhas went off to a fantastic start, scoring five consecutive points to gain an early advantage. The Yoddhas completely controlled the first seven minutes of the game, denying Gujarat any opportunity to score. Although Gujarat was able to breach UP’s defense and score the game’s opening point, the Yoddhas, captained by Pardeep Narwal, quickly answered with the contest’s first All-Out to take a 13-2 advantage. While the Gujarat Giants attempted to fight back and scored here and there, the Yoddhas remained in complete control and went into the break 20-10 ahead.
However, it was a completely different story in the second half, as the Giants rallied after falling behind in the first half. Gujarat cut the lead in half within the first five minutes and after inflicting a brilliant All-Out on the Yoddhas, they reduced the lead to just one point. In the final two minutes, the difference between the two teams never rose above two points, but a Super Tackle by the Yoddhas on Dhaiya ultimately ended the Giants’ chances. The UP Yoddhas’ Pardeep Narwal stood out as a star player, scoring 9 points overall to lead his team to victory.
Furthermore, the U.P captain earned his 1500th raid point in Pro Kabaddi League. As for Gujarat’s side, raider Parteek Dahiya took a super 10 with 10 raid points, while Chandran Ranjit took one tackle and six raid points. With 50 points and eight victories, UP Yoddhas moved up to the top four in the Pro Kabaddi League standings with this victory. They are quite close to the third-place team in the standings and the second-place squad, both of which have a small point differential. If UP plays their cards right, they might climb to the third slot in the upcoming day, but at the same time, a loss could force them to drop out of the top four.
Tamil Thalaivas conquer Bengal Warriors in an intense battle
Both Bengal and Tamil scored early points, and the first few minutes of the game were very tight. Even though it appeared to be a tough match as expected, Thalaivas gained momentum to lead the match. Bengal struck back right away, making a great tackle that sent Thalivas’ star player Narendra to the sidelines. After exchanging a few more blows, Tamil Thalaivas went all-out on Bengal, which gave them a 21-13 advantage going into the break.
After scoring successive raids, Narender and Ajinkya Pawar assisted Tamil Thalaivas in increasing its lead. However, a few seconds later, Maninder pulled off a Super Raid to keep the Warriors in the game at 25-27. With a fantastic two- point raid, the ace raider of the Thalaivas, Narender, shifted the tide back in their favor. He continued to score points to maintain the advantage at 31-29 in the 38th minute despite facing heavy resistance from the opponents. In the final two minutes, the Warriors had a chance to tie the score, but Thalaivas’ Super Tackle in the final minute of play ultimately helped them secure a 35-30 victory over Bengal.
With 13 raid points, Tamil’s Narender earned a super 10, while their captain Sagar contributed 5 tackle points to the tally. Ajinkya Pawar wasn’t far behind, scoring six points in raids and making one tackle. The Bengal team’s captain Maninder Singh scored a super 10 with 15 raid points, but his efforts were ineffective because the other Bengal players did not back him up as effectively as Thalaiv did with their star player Narendra. With this victory, Thalivas have the same number of points as the Bengal Warriors, 43, and are currently ranked eighth overall. However, Bengal is currently standing ahead of Thalivas because of the score difference.