Mumbai: In a match which was dominated by the raider, a technical point came in rescue for the U.P. Yoddha in the last raid of the match to help the team level the scores with Telugu Titans in Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) season 7 clash here on Friday. This was PKL 7's first tie encounter.
It was a low-scoring yet thrilling contest where the two defences rose to the occasion. Siddharth Desai top-scored for Telugu Titans with 5 raid points. Abozar Mighani scored four tackle points.
The defensive duo of Nitesh Kumar and Amit combined, scored 8 tackle points for U.P. Yoddha. Both teams' star raiders opened their accounts in the first minute as Siddharth and Monu Goyat made successful raids. Telugu Titans opened up a three-point gap after five minutes to lead 5-2.
U.P clawed their way back to level the match at 7-7.
Amit put in a terrific strong tackle as U.P. trailed 9-11. Shrikant Jadhav completed a do-or-die in the 20th minute as U.P. levelled the match at 11-11 at the end of the first half. It was the Desai brothers that did the bulk of the scoring for Titans in the first half as they combined scored 7 raid points.
The second half saw both teams starting a bit cagily as they traded raided and tackle points. After 29 minutes, the score was level at 14 points apiece. The match was a fine example of how tough the league has become and the defensive units of teams have become stronger.
Raiders from both U.P. and Telugu Titans were kept quiet by both the defences. It came to two critical do-or-die raids and while Siddharth made a successful one, Monu failed to do so.
With less than five minutes to go, Telugu Titans led 18-15. U.P. first forced a super tackle and then got a raid point to level the match at 18-18 in the 36th minute.
With less than two minutes to go, both teams were level at 19-19 and it looked like the match was heading for a tie. It looked like Siddharth had won the match for the Titans but his teammates rushed to the court which led to U.P. being awarded a technical point, ending the match with a tie at 20-20.
