Haryana Steelers and the UP Yoddhas registered comfortable victories against home favourties Bengaluru Bulls and Telugu Titans respectively at the 2023 Pro Kabaddi League on Saturday.
While the Steelers defeated the Bulls 38-32, courtesy a good display from Vinay and Siddharth Desai, a super 10 from Titans captain Pawan Sehrawat was overshadowed by Yoddha’s Gill to take his team to a 48-33 win.
Bharat pulled off a super raid early on and took out Desai, Mohit Nandal, Jaideep Dahiya, Rahul Sethpal and Mohit in the first minute of the match as the Bulls raced to a 5-0 lead against the Steelers.
However, Vinay picked up a few raid points and Dahiya affected a super tackle on Bharat to help the Steelers clinch the lead at 8-6 in the 7th minute. Soon after, the Steelers inflicted an all out to take a massive lead at 12-6.
The Steelers continued to put relentless pressure on the Bulls and stayed in complete control of the game at 15-7 in the 11th minute. Vinay kept picking up raid points as the Steelers kept forging ahead. Desai also effected a double-point raid and helped his team inflict another all out in the 18th minute. The Steelers went into the break leading at 26-13.
The Bulls tackled Vinay in the opening minutes of the second half, but the Steelers still held a comfortable lead at 29-15 in the 24th minute.
The home side inflicted an all out in the 31st minute, however, the Steelers continued to dominate the scoreline at 31-24.
The home side tried to forge a comeback through the efforts of defenders Saurabh Nandal and Parteek, but the Steelers also kept scoring points in tandem.
The Haryana-based side ensured that they stayed in the lead for the rest of the game and eventually walked off the mat after handing the Bulls their fourth consecutive loss.
Yoddhas beat Titans
UP Yoddhas started off well as they tackled Sehrawat on his very first raid of the evening. They capitalised on that brilliantly and inflicted the first all out soon after to race to a 10-3 lead.
Not to be outdone by the higher-profile raiders on either side of him, Surender Gill took it upon himself to take charge of the game. His super raid to take out Ankit and Milad Jabbari helped the Yoddhas take a huge lead.
The Titans clawed some of it back, as the half wore on. Jabbari’s super tackle got rid of Gill for the first time in the evening and the teams went into the break with the Titans down by 4 points.
Despite some dogged defending by the Titans duo of Mohit and Jabbari, the Yoddhas inflicted a second all out to take a nine-point lead with ten minutes of the game left.
Thereafter, the Yoddhas ensured that the Titans did not get any sniff at a comeback. With two minutes to go, a third all out followed as the Titans faced their third consecutive defeat.