Hyderabad: UP Yoddhas, the GMR group owned franchisee hopes to make it to the semi-finals of the ninth Pro Kabaddi League were dashed out as they lost a thrilling encounter to Tamil Thalaivas in the tie breaker 4-6 (36-36). UP Yoddhas and Tamil Thalaivas ended the stipulated game time of 40 minutes (20 minutes of two halves) with a tied score of 36 each, which led to the tie-breaker being played.
For UP Yoddhas, Captain Pardeep Narwal was the highest scorer earning 12 points while Surender Gill earned 8 points and Sumit earned 5 crucial points. UP Yoddhas finished the league stage at the fourth place with 71 points from 22 games and are the only team in the Pro Kabaddi league to have made it to the playoffs every time since inception.
Tamil Thalaivas won the toss and decided to raid first. Tamil Thalaivas drew first blood through a bonus point, but followed up with four quick points in succession as the score board read 0-4 to their favour. However UP Yoddhas got into the game a little late but they gave a clear glimpse of their intentions and they kicked-off their score card with the help of a tackle and there after kept earning points in quick succession to reduce the four-point deficit to just two as the scoreboard read 3-5 to the favour of Tamil Thalaivas.
The game thereafter was an even contest for a large part of the half. However, in the final moments of the first half when Tamil Thalaivas looked like getting a grip over the game with a four-point lead and keeping the complete UP Yoddhas attack on bench outside the mat, it was UP Yoddhas defenders who came to the rescue with a super tackle to make a comeback with the score board reading 11-12 to the formers favour. The first half came to an end with the scoreboard reading 14-16 to the favour of Tamil Thalaivas.
The second half began with Tamil Thalaivas continuing their momentum and inflicting the first All Out of the game on UP Yoddhas in the starting moments of the game and taking 15-19 lead. UP Yoddhas started making a slow comeback into the game with Surender Gill and Pardeep Narwal showing the effects of their experience and skills. While UP Yoddhas never took the lead for most part of the second half it was only in the 18th minute of the second half when UP Yoddhas inflicted an All Out on Tamil Thalaivas, thereby equalizing the score at 33 – 33.
Thereafter with 30 seconds to go in the match Captain Pardeep Narwal got UP Yoddhas into the lead for the first time in the game with a 3-point Super Raid with the scoreboard reading 36-34. The final 30 seconds of the game saw Tamil Thalaivas equalizing the score at 36-36 as the game moved into a Tie Breaker.
The Tie Breaker as per the rules of Pro Kabaddi League, saw Tamil Thalaivas raid first but UP Yoddhas defence ensured that it was them who draw the first blood through an excellent tackle point as they did not even allow Tamil Thalivas raider to cross the baulk line. However UP Yoddhas lost this lead in the tie-breaker soon as Tamil Thalaivas restricted Pardeep Narwal from adding another point to the formers score. Both UP Yoddhas and Tamil Thalaivas were settled at 3-3 in the tie-breaker when the latter changed gears and took a three-point lead with the help of two bonuses and a successful tackle. Surender Gill who went for the last raid of the tie-breaker could only return with a lone point resulting in UP Yoddhas losing the eliminators 4-6 to Tamil Thalaivas.
