UP Yoddha saw off late comeback by Tamil Thalaivas and secured a 37-32 win on Monday in the Pro Kabaddi League. A solid first half perforance which saw them give away only four points laid the foundaion for the win.
Prashant Kumar Rai scored eight points to lead the scoring chart while Narender was did the damage with his tackles for UP. Thalaivas made a bid to comeback with Ajay Thakur scoring 12 points in the second half but it was too little too late.
UP inflicted the first allout in the ninth minute of the match and did not give Thalaivas any chance to score. It took them 13 minutes to score their first point through Manjeet Chillar’s tackle. Thakur then took a point via raid but UP had run away with a 12-2 lead.
At the break, UP Yoddha led 18-4 and completely dominated the first half.
Playing their second game in two days, the Thalaivas looked exhausted and suffered another allout. Prashant scored two points in the 22nd minute raid to extend UP’s lead to 20 points.
But UP slowed the pace of the game towards the end this enabled Thalaivas to inflict an allout and bring down the lead to nine points. They did come close to pulling off a miracle but UP kept them calm and won with a five-point difference.