Pune: Puneri Paltan ended their home leg on a disappointing note going down against UP Yoddha 23-29 in Pro Kabaddi League Season 6 match at Balewadi Sports Complex, badminton hall.
Out of six matches, the Pune outfit managed to win three to stay on top of Zone A with 32 points. Now Paltan will play their next match against Gujarat Fortunegiants in Patna on October 30.
Pune who started without their regular captain Girish Ernak started on a very slow note. In his absence Nitin Tomar captaining the team started with empty raids. Young raider Monu showed glimpses of form but UP defenders tackled him nicely on most of the occasions.
At the end of 10 minutes, UP Yoddha was leading 8-5 and from there onwards the visitors took complete control of the match. Without Girish, Sandeep Narwal and Rajesh Mondal – Pune raiding and defence department displayed a toothless performance.
At the end of half time, UP Yoddha went into half time with the score line of 16-13. Pune failed to score a single defence point in the first session.
After resumption as well, nothing worked for Pune and they lost the contest by 6 points.
Bengaluru tops Zone B
In the first match of the day Bengaluru Bulls defeated Haryana Steelers 42-34. With this win Bengaluru moves to top position in Zone B with 16 points in four matches.
The match saw a good raiding show from both the sides but in the defence department it was Bengaluru who edged their opponents. Bengaluru collected total of seven points in defence while Haryana could only manage four points. Good performance in defence helped Bengaluru to ‘All Out’ Haryana twice.
Results:
Match 1: Bengaluru Bulls 42 (Pawan Sehrawat 20, Rohit Kumar 8, Mahender Singh 2, Kashiling Adake 2) bt Haryana Steelers 34 (Vikas Kandola 14, Monu Goyat 11, Parveen 3, Mayur Shivtarkar 2)
Best defender: Mahender Singh (2 points, Bengaluru Bulls)
Best raider: Pawan Sehrawat (20 points, Bengaluru Bulls)
Match 2: UP Yoddha 29 (Prashanth Kumar Rai 8, Shrikant Jadhav 6, Rishank Devadiga 4) bt Puneri Paltan 23 (Monu 7, Nitin Tomar 5, Ravi Kumar 3)
Best Defender: Nitesh Kumar (3 points, UP Yoddha)
Best Raider: Prashanth Kumar Rai (8 points, UP Yoddha)