PKL: UP Yoddha Edge Past U Mumba 34-32

UP Yoddha edged past U Mumba 34-32 by a slender margin in the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) tie at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Indoor Stadium here on Saturday. Prashanth Kumar Rai (8 points) with a two-point raid in the last minute clinched the win for UP Yoddha. It was a disappointing night for U Mumba as Siddharth Desai and Rohit Rana both suffered injuries. The loss means that U Mumba won't finish at the top of the table in Zone A.

UP Yoddha still have a slim chance of making it to the playoffs. Sachin Kumar had a brilliant game in defence for Yoddha and earned six tackle points while Rishank Devadiga got seven raid points.

U Mumba made a strong start to lead 3-0 after two minutes but Shrikant Jadhav got two raid points as UP Yoddha cut the deficit to 3-4. U Mumba then forced two super tackles in the space of three minutes to lead 8-5 by the 8th minute.

UP Yoddha forced an all out in the 13th minute as they lead 14-8 after 14 minutes. U Mumba came back strongly with Abolfazl Maghsodlou producing a super raid to level the match 14-14 after 17 minutes.

UP Yoddha didn't buckle under pressure as Prashanth made consecutive two-point raids.

At the end of the first half, UP Yoddha led 18-15.

UP began the second half strongly with a super tackle in the 21st minute to lead 20-15. But U Mumba inflicted an all out in the 23rd minute to level the match at 20-20.

For the next 10 minutes it was an evenly contested fight with both teams picking raid and tackle points.

Rishank made a two-point raid in the 32nd minute to give UP Yoddha 29-25 lead. It was a close affair with less than five minutes to go but Rohit Baliyan made a two-point raid in the 38th minute to level the match at 31-31.

Darshian Kadian forced an error out of Yoddha's defence in the 40th minute to tie the match at 32-32. Prashanth made a brilliant two-point raid in the dying seconds to give Yoddha a narrow 34-32 win.

(With IANS inputs)