PKL: Raiders shine as UP Yoddhas start season with thrilling win over Jaipur Pink Panthers

Bengaluru: UP Yoddhas, representing the state of Uttar Pradesh started their campaign in the Pro Kabaddi League Season 9 with a thrilling two-point win over Jaipur Pink Panthers.
The 2022 season of the Pro Kabaddi league started on Friday at Bengaluru. UP Yoddhas playing the third game of the night registered a 34-32 win over Jaipur Pink Panthers in the final seconds of the match. UP Yoddha are currently placed third on the points table with five points from one game.
UP Yoddhas will now face U-Mumba on October 10.
For UP Yoddhas Surender Gill earned a total of 9 points that also included one tackle point while Pardeep Narwal earned 7 raid points and was also adjudged the Vivo Perfect Player of the Match along with bagging the Fairplay Fantasy Moment of the match award. Rohit Tomar also earned 3 points for UP Yoddhas which also included a tackle point.
The defensive unit of UP Yoddhas stood upto their name with Ashu Singh earning the highest 4 tackle points and also winning the Dream11 Game Changer award. Shubham Kumar from UP Yoddhas earned 3 tackle points while Captain Nitesh Kumar and Sumit earned two tackle points each in the game.
The game began with Jaipur drawing the first blood of the game through a successful tackle on star raider Pardeep Narwal. However, UP Yoddhas struck back with a successful tackle to stay even. The game thereafter saw both the teams earning back-to-back points through offence and defence.
However, Jaipur's defenders outplayed star raiders of UP Yoddhas in the first half on many occasions that resulted in Jaipur Pink Panthers inflicting an All-Out on UP Yoddhas, that helped them race ahead to 12-7 lead. UP Yoddhas however staged a brilliant comeback to end the first half trailing behind by just 3 points, with the scoreboard reading 15-12 in the favour of Jaipur Pink Panthers.
UP Yoddhas started the second half, charged with making a comeback and they made no errors in actualizing their goal.
Not only did UP Yoddhas overturn the deficit but they also inflicted an all-out on Jaipur Pink Panthers with the scoreboard reading 18-16 in their favour. Jaipur Pink Panthers tried making a comeback with a super raid reducing their deficit to 2 points, however, UP Yoddhas struck back immediately after with a Super Tackle taking the scoreboard to 24-20 in their favour.
The game thereafter saw some nervous moments as Jaipur Pink Panthers inflicted a second All Out of the game on UP Yoddhas though still trailing the latter by two points with the scoreboard reading 28-26. However, post this All-Out the UP Yoddhas attacking and defensive units sprung back to action and the game came to a thrilling closure in the final raid of the game with UP Yoddhas winning 34-32 against Jaipur Pink Panthers. (ANI)