Pro Kabaddi: Telugu Titans, UP Yoddha play out dramatic tie; U Mumba end home leg on winning note

The Telugu Titans and UP Yoddha Pro Kabaddi League match on Friday ended in a tie with both teams locked at 20-20. The two sides were locked at 19-19 with 30 seconds left for the match when Telugu’s star raider Siddharth Desai attempted the final raid.

UP’s Sumit went out of the mat and the Titans got a crucial point and almost had the game in the bag at 20-19 before an unexpected turn of events. Desai’s teammates entered the mat before the final whistle was blown, resulting in UP being given a “technical point” by match officials, leading to the match ending as a tie.

As early as a sixth minute, UP removed Desai as he went in for an unsuccessful raid to reduce the gap to 3-5.

A successful raid by Monu Goyat and two successful tackles helped UP to reduce the deficit to 6-7 in the 12th minute. The two teams were locked in a neck and neck battle, even as Telugu inched ahead to 9-7. But with some good tackles and raids, UP made it 11-11 going into the break.

Titans began the second half with a successful tackle to go 12-11 ahead, but UP pulled back one to make it 12-12. UP raider Shrikant Jadhav failed under pressure as Telugu picked up a point to make it 13-12. But even Titans’ star raider Desai faltered as UP collected a point to make it 13-13. With just nine minutes to go, the two sides were locked at 15-15.

However, a couple of successful tackles and with Desai picking up a point, Telugu moved 18-15 ahead. But a timely Super Tackle by UP Yoddha followed by a successful raid helped UP Yoddha level the scores at 18-18. Both teams successfully tackled their opponents as the scores were levelled at 19-19 before the late drama unfolded.

U Mumba beat Gujarat Fortunegiants

Surinder Singh produced a terrific all-round display to ensure U Mumba ended their home leg with a win as they beat Gujarat Fortunegiants 32-20. Surinder got a high five and made an excellent super raid to lead U Mumba to an impressive victory.

For Gujarat Fortunegiants, this was the first defeat of the season while U Mumba registered their second win in front of their home crowd.

Rohit Baliyan made a crucial super raid in the second half, which shifted the momentum in U Mumba’s favour. Gujarat Fortunegiants didn’t do much wrong for most of the match but lost to a moment of brilliance from Surinder Singh as they never recovered from his super raid.

It was a closely-contested affair in the first 10 minutes as both teams were tied at 4-4 with little to choose between U Mumba and Gujarat Fortunegiants.

Surender picked up two tackle points for U Mumba whereas Rohit Gulia scored two raid points for Gujarat Fortunegiants. Fazal Atrachali marshaled his troops at the back very well for U Mumba.

Abhishek Singh made a crucial do-or-die raid in the 15th minute and for a minute it looked the momentum will swing U Mumba’s way. But Gujarat Fortunegiants made a super tackle in the 17th minute to cut down the deficit. Surender Singh had a strong first half for U Mumba as he scored four tackle points. At the end of the first half, U Mumba held a slender 9-7 lead.

Gujarat Fortunegiants started the second half with a bang as they forced a super tackle to level the match at 9-9. U Mumba then went on a six-point run as they inflicted an all out to lead 15-9 after 25 minutes. Rohit Baliyan made things worse for Gujarat as he produced a super raid in the 27th minute to give U Mumba 18-10 lead.

Gujarat Fortunegiants came back in the game as they scored four straight points to trail 15-18 and reduced U Mumba to just two men. In the space of a minute, U Mumba turned the match on its head as first they forced a super tackle. Then, Surender Singh came up with a super raid. U Mumba then led 28-15 with less than four minutes to go.

With less than five minutes all Gujarat could do was make an attempt to reduce the margin of defeat to seven. U Mumba, however, were in no mood to relent and didn’t show any signs of complacency.