Pro Kabaddi: Red-hot UP Yoddha overcome Jaipur Pink Panthers; Dabang Delhi ease past Telugu Titans

UP Yoddha produced a clinical performance to beat Jaipur Pink Panthers 38-32 in a Pro Kabaddi League match in Pune on Monday.

Raiders Surender Gill (7 points), Shrikant Jadhav (9 points) and Rishank Devadiga (8 points) all stepped up for the UP side as they overcame the season one champions to jump to fifth place on the points table.

Deepak Hooda secured a Super 10 (13 points including a Super Tackle) for the Pink Panthers but the team’s lack of quality raiders was evident once again as they struggled for inspiration in attack.

Pink Panthers got off to a bright start, with Sushil Gulia giving them three points with a super raid in the second minute. But the Srinivas Reddy-coached side struggled in defence, and a few silly errors allowed the UP raiders to crawl back in the match.

Surender, Shrikant Jadhav, and Devadiga contributed in raids for the UP team as they inflicted an all-out on the Pink Panthers in the 12th minute to open up a six-point lead.

Jaipur’s issue was that they were conceding too many multi-point raids and the trend continued after the all-out with Shrikant Jadhav picking up an easy three-point raid with two minutes remaining for half time.

At the other end, Jaipur captain Hooda ensured the lead did not widen with five touch points to his name in the half. The first half ended 20-13 with Yoddha on top.

The second half turned out to be a repeat of the first half with Jaipur Pink Panthers struggling to function as a team in defence despite tackling Shrikant Jadhav in the early minutes.

Devadiga picked up easy points as UP maintained their lead over their opponents.

Hooda delayed the inevitable all-out with some all-round heroics including a super tackle but UP Yoddha secured their second all-out in the seventh minute of the half to get an 8-point lead.

The UP defence held their nerves in the final minutes to clinch an important victory, their fifth on the spin.

Delhi surge clear at the top

Naveen Kumar secured another Super 10 as Dabang Delhi beat Telugu Titans 37-29 in the second match on Monday.

The raider secured his 14th consecutive Super 10, as the Delhi team produced an all-round performance, with defenders Ravinder Pahal and Anil Kumar finishing with four tackle points each, to see out the win that helped them stay on top of the points table.

Delhi dominated the early minutes as they thwarted Siddharth Desai’s raids with ease while Naveen did the damage at the other end, but not without suffering some tackles himself.

Crucially, the Titans kept picking up valuable raid points to stay in the match despite Delhi reducing their men on the mat.

All-rounder Rakesh Gowda was the best player for the Titans in both the ends. His Super Tackle on Naveen Kumar in the 8th minute, followed by another Super Tackle on the same raider by Abozar Mighani, gave Titans a healthy lead.

The Delhi team finally got their all-out with less than five minutes to half time and Naveen’s quick raids helped Delhi end the half on a high with the scores at 18-15.

The second half saw the table-toppers up their game. Pahal’s dominance in the right corner for Delhi meant Siddharth had a difficult night.

The lack of quality back up for the ‘Baahubali’ eventually came back to haunt them as Delhi clinched their second all-out in the 11th minute to open up an 11-point lead.

Naveen and Siddharth clinched their Super 10s with less than five minutes remaining but the Titans failed to close the gap on Delhi.

The result helped Delhi consolidate their stay at the top while Titans will now find it very hard to secure a playoff berth after failing to get even a point from the match.

There will be no matches on Tuesday and the action will return on Wednesday with U Mumba taking on in-form UP Yoddha before Puneri Paltan’s encounter against Tamil Thalaivas.