UP Yoddha’s superb team work propelled it to a brilliant 33-26 win over Gujarat Fortunegiants in the Pro Kabaddi League at the Netaji Indoor Stadium on Monday.
Yoddha’s seventh victory in 14 matches promoted it to the top-six club on the points table.
The UP side relied on its balance to stay ahead in the contest, which was closely fought for most part of the 40-minute duration.
Yoddha raised their game to gather eight points, including three by making Fortunegiants all out two minutes prior to the half-time, in the last five minutes of the opening period.
Surender Gill, Rishank Devadiga earned three points apiece and Shrikant Jadhav contributed two through raids, while Sumit and Nitesh Kumar fetched two points each through tackling to enable Yoddha take a crucial 16-9 lead at the breather.
In the eventful second half, Yoddha maintained their stranglehold to perform another all out within six minutes.
But Fortunegiants, positioned at the eighth spot, fought back dramatically. The Gujarat team banked on a super raid by Sachin — who claimed Nitesh, Sumit, Amit and Ashu Singh — to all out Yodha within the next four minutes.
Some fine tackles by captain Sunil Kumar helped Fortunegiants give Yoddha a close chase until the latter killed time in the closing moments to cling on to their narrow lead.
Later, bottom-placed Patna Pirates rode on Pardeep Narwal’s outstanding raiding, which brought him 26 points, to steamroller Tamil Thalaivas 51-25 and end its six-match losing streak.
Thalaivas got all out four times in the match.
The results: UP Yoddha 33 (Shrikant 6, Surender 6, Rishank 5, Sumit 5, Nitesh 4) bt Gujarat Fortunegiants 26 (Sachin 10, Sunil Kumar 7).
Patna Pirates 51 (Pardeep Narwal 26, Jaideep 7) bt Tamil Thalaivas 25 (V. Ajith Kumar 10, Rahul Chaudhari 5) .
