Neither the Bengal Warriors’ Maninder Singh, nor Telugu Titans’ Suraj Desai took the risk to win a point and clinch the ProKabaddi League 7 match for their respective sides in Ahmedabad on Monday.
Their timid effort in the last 38 seconds let the score stay at 29 all. Maninder spent 30 futile seconds and ambled back to safety, as did Suraj, who had scored four touch and three bonus points who preferred to play safe.
PKL 2019 Day 19: as it happened
The teams shared six points. The match began with Siddharth Desai scoring a cheeky point of a sliding toe-touch on Rinku Narwal.
The Titans’ hope always hinged on Desai's ability to manage successful raids, but on an eventful evening, the Warriors tackled him through waist holds, throwing him of out of the court more than once.
Desai only managed two points in each half, with a brilliant all-round show from Maninder, Prapanjan, and Nabibakhsh keeping the Titans in check.
A standout moment from the game was an absolute stunner of a tackle by Rinku Narwal. Siddharth Desai came in to raid, and Narwal's first attempt as a tackle was unsuccessful, but the man quickly held the Titans ace by his waist and pulled him back, sending the raider and his team out of the mat.
Trailing initially, the Warriors picked up tempo to lead 24-21 after being down at 12-17. But a resurgence from the Titans saw them bounce back and the scores level at 28 all.
In the final moments of the game, both sides played it safe to ensure the tie ended in a, well, tie.
UP Yoddha pulls off an upset, beats Bengaluru Bulls
Title holder Bengaluru Bulls slumped to its second consecutive loss as it lost to UP Yoddha in Ahmedabad on Monday.
The Bulls started strong with Rohit Kumar and Pawan Sehrawat taking charge of proceedings. UP was in no mood to give in easy, matching its opponent at every step of the game.
After a low-scoring first half, the pace of the game picked up in the second.
Sumit Singh managed a raid point off Maghsoudlou to bring Pawan Sehrawat back on the mat. UP managed to keep the high-flyer quiet though, hardly giving him any time in the middle.
He was the target of the defense, and ended up being successfully tackled more than he would have liked, something other teams have not done to much success so far in the tournament.
Defensive errors from Mahender Singh and Rohit Kumar becoming an easy tackle target made things easy for the Yoddha.
Apart from a good victory, the Yoddha will also be relieved to see Monu Goyat strike form. He kept the scoreboard ticking and was ably supported by Shrikant Jadhav.
Goyat (8) and Jadhav (9) tallied 17 points to offset a Super 10 effort by the Bulls’ Pawan Sherawat (15). In fact Jadhav scored his ninth seconds away from the final whistle. The result: UP Yoddha bt Bengaluru Bulls 35-33.
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