Pune: Timely ‘Super Tackles’ and ‘Super Raids’ by Puneri Paltan was enough to steal a one point victory over U Mumba in the Pro Kabaddi League Season 6 match at the Balewadi Sports Complex, badminton hall on Saturday.
In a nail biting contest, the Pune team held their nerves to secure a 33-32 win over neighbours.
U Mumba who was trailing 12-17 at the end of half time but came out with an attacking approach to put pressure on the hosts.
It was Siddharth Desai who was creating havoc for Pune defenders, stealing points on every raid. Such was the dominance of Siddharth that he scored 15 points out of 21 total raid points for U Mumba.
Mumbai’s second raider Abolfazl Moghsodlou could not do much for U Mumba as he only managed 3 points in his 12 raids while star defender Fazel Atrachali only scored 3 points.
For home team, experienced players Nitin Tomar and Girsh Erank came out with a phenomenal performance which allowed Pune to stay ahead in the match. Nitin collected 13 points while Girish earned 5 points.
Earlier, star raiders from both the teams Nitin and Siddharth started the match on a good note as the duo collected points in tandem for their respective teams.
The scoreline was going neck to neck, until Siddharth was tackled by Paltan defenders in the 12th minute and from there onwards Pune controlled the match.
UP-Bengal share points
The first contest of the day turned out to be the battle of equals as Bengal Warriors and UP Yoddha match ended with the scoreline of 40-40.
With the score being 39-40 before the last raid, it was a bonus point from Prashanth Rai who did the trick for UP as they managed to earn 3 points.
Till the 30th minute, UP Yoddha were leading the match with the scoreline of 28-21 but in the last ten minutes, Bengal Warriors took raid points in tandem which allowed them to draw the contest.
Results:
Match 1: Bengal Warriors 40 (Maninder Singh 16, Jang Kun Lee 7, Surjeet Singh 6) drew with UP Yoddha 40 (Prashanth Rai 13, Rishank Devadiga 9, Sagar Krishna 4)
Best Defender: Surjeet Singh (6 points Bengal Warriors)
Best Raider: Maninder Singh (16 points Bengal Warriors)
Match 2: Puneri Paltan 33 (Nitin Tomar 13, Girish Ernak 5, Monu 3,) beat U Mumba 32 (Siddharth Desai 15, Abolfazl Moghsodlou 3, Fazel Atrachali 3)
Best Defender: Girish Ernak (5 points, Puneri Paltan )
Best Raider: Siddharth Desai (15 points, U Mumba)
