Welcome to Sportstar's coverage of the Pro Kabaddi League. This is Nihit Sachdeva and I will be taking you through today's PKL 8 match between UP Yoddha and Haryana Steelers.
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Summary: It is three wins in three matches for Vikash Kandola's Haryana Steelers. However, unlike the last two, this wasn't as convincing and they must have had their hearts in their mouths after Shrikant Jadhav's Super Raid with less than a minute remaining. Kudos to young raider Vinay who had been told by coach Rakesh Kumar not to settle for the tie and try for a bonus. He did exactly that and with this win, Haryana have climbed upto fifth. UP take one point since they lost by less than seven points which means both teams are now tied on 39 points but UP stay on fourth courtesy of a better score difference.
35-36: Vinay wins it for Haryana! It was the last raid of the match, the match clock had less time than the 30 seconds of the raid and Vinay did enough to win a bonus before running back to the mid-line. He then ran down the clock and returned to his teammates who were absolutely elated. Nitesh Kumar and others could have pushed Vinay back to his side of the mat and then attempted a big raid but they left it on the official assuming that Vinay had not taken the bonus. Haryana Steelers beat UP Yoddha 36-35!!!
35-35: SUPER RAID BY SHRIKANT JADHAV!!! The tall raider wins a bonus and then escapes the Haryana defense closing in on him with two touch points. Super 10 for Shrikant Jadhav and parity restored with less than a minute to go. Haryana lose their review challenging the bonus.
Time out taken by Haryana with one and a half minutes left.
32-35: Vinay in for the do-or-die raid, gets a touch on Ashu Singh and understandably looks to waste time. Ashu pushes him to his side of the mat.
Time out taken by UP Yoddha with almost two minutes to go.
31-34: Surender Nada first put in the ankle hold on Taghi and then the Haryana defense went all in on him.
31-33: Jaideep and Mohit at it again. The victim - Pardeep Narwal. High Five for Jaideep.
31-32: ALL OUT!!! What a turnaround from UP! Ashish Narwal got the bonus and then jumped over Nitesh in his bid to escape but it was not enough as in the end, Nitesh took him down.
Final strategic time out. Four and a half minutes to go.
28-31: Pardeep Narwal goes in for the raid with only Rohit Gulia and Jaideep on the mat. Jaideep gets a strong ankle hold, Pardeep almost gets his hand across the mid-line before Rohit Gulia comes to stop him. However, in the struggle, Rohit's shoulder has gone over the mid-line and therefore what could have been a super tackle for Haryana is infact a point for UP.
27-31: Rohit Gulia picks up a bonus point.
27-30: Do-or-die raid for Shrikant. The pressure should have been on him but Ravi Kumar releases it all as he goes for a quick ankle hold and fails.
26-30: He does it in offense and in defense too. Mohammad Taghi with a perfect ankle hold takes down Vikash.
25-30: Shrikant Jadhav uses his reach to make it to the mid-line despite the ankle hold from Ankit.
24-30: Nitesh makes another error as he chases Vikash towards the mid-line going for the back hold.
First strategic time out. Ten minutes to go. Haryana was on the verge of inflicting another all out on UP but Iranian raider Mohammad Taghi's Super Raid ensured that not only was the all out avoided, but he has given his team genuine hopes of a comeback from here.
24-29: SUPER RAID!!! What a substitution from UP Yoddha! They brought in Mohammad Taghi for the raid who not only avoided the all out but instead picked up a bonus and three touch points.
20-28: Pardeep has been taken down yet again. His fourth failed raid of the night. This was a do-or-die raid for him but he could not do anything against an alert Haryana defense.
20-27: SUPER TACKLE!!! Vikash went a little too deep and Ashu Singh put in a great dash to push him off the mat but went out of bounds himself in the process too.
18-25: Lovely stuff from Rohit again as he jumps over the chain of Sahil and Sumit to return with two touch points.
17-23: Clever from Rohit Gulia as he sends Pardeep to the bench with a brilliant toe touch.
17-22: Pardeep Narwal picks up a bonus point.
16-20: ALL OUT!!! Substitute Sahil goes in for the raid, gets a bonus but nothing more than that as he has been taken down by Mohit who completes his High Five.
15-17: UP is down to a single man now. Vikash gets another touch point as the right corner's ankle hold never reached Vikash's ankle.
14-16: Super Tackle is on as Vikash goes in for the raid. However, he takes his time and then safely negotiates Shubham Kumar's block.
HALF-TIME: UP Yoddha 14-15 Haryana Steelers
14-15: Haryana's defense has their ninth tackle point as they take Shrikant Jadhav down this time.
14-13: Lovely combo from Shubham and Ankit. Shubham went for the ankle hold on Vikash and Ankit came in for the dash to push him off the mat.
13-13: Pardeep picks up a bonus.
12-13: First raid point of the night for Vikash. It was a do-or-die raid but the raider kept his calm before getting a running hand touch on Sumit on the left corner. UP Yoddha lose their review as they said that Vikash had been pushed off the mat but the decision went against them.
9-11: Do-or-die raid for UP this time, Ankit takes the responsibility but he has been mobbed by the Haryana defense.
9-10: Do-or-die raid, Vinay comes in and baits Sumit into going for the ankle hold. Sumit falls for it and provides an easy touch point.
9-9: SUPER TACKLE!!! Mohit dashes towards Pardeep, misses the tackle but does enough for the other two players to come and take the raider down.
9-7: Vikash hasn't found his rhythm yet. Another unsuccessful raid as he walks straight into a block by Shubham Kumar.
8-7: SUPER TACKLE!!! First of the night and it has been done by Surender Nada on Pardeep, A brutal double thigh hold.
7-4: Pardeep gets one more. This time, a stretched hand on Ravi Kumar on the right corner gets a touch point.
6-4: Pardeep sends Jaideep to the bench as he wins a quick touch point and returns to the mid-line.
5-4: Well, the raiders haven't had much fun so far. Shrikant Jadhav with another unsuccessful raid.
5-3: Nicely done, Sumit! The left corner gets hold of Vikash's ankle and gets the assist in time.
3-3: Jaideep opens his tackle points account for the night with a tackle on Shrikant Jadhav.
2-3: Still no Vikash as Vinay goes this time and comes back with a touch point with the error coming from skipper Nitesh Kumar.
2-1: Surprise, surprise. It is not Vikash but Rohit Gulia putting first raid and he has been pushed off the mat.
1-0: Pardeep Narwal in for the opening raid and gets a touch point straight away as Surender Nada tries a solo block.
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TOSS - Haryana Steelers win the toss. UP Yoddha to raid first.
7:20PM: LINE-UPS!!!
UP Yoddha: Nitesh Kumar (c), Pardeep Narwal, Shrikant Jadhav, Ankit, Sumit, Ashu Singh, Shubham Kumar
Haryana Steelers: Vikash Kandola (c), Vinay, Rohit Gulia, Surender Nada, Jaideep, Mohit Nandal, Ravi Kumar
7:15PM: Head-to-head stats: Matches played - 5, Matches won by UP Yoddha - 2, Matches won by Haryana Steelers - 2, Matches tied - 1, Last meeting: 36-36 tie
7:05PM: Haryana Steelers have won their last two matches against Puneri Paltan and Dabang Delhi K.C. in gritty fashion. While the defense still has scope for improvement, the offense has been sublime with skipper Vikash Kandola leading from the front. In their last match against Delhi, Vikash and his fellow raiders ran riot and picked up 23 points brutally exploiting the chinks in Manjeet Chhillar and co.'s defensive unit. A win today against UP Yoddha would be massive for the Steelers as they'll make a huge jump from ninth to fourth (if they beat UP by more than seven points).
6:55PM: UP Yoddha come into this fixture on a five-match unbeaten run which comprises four wins and a tie (36-36 against the Steelers). They are currently fourth on the points table and well on course to make it to the play-offs if they keep this momentum going. Raiders Surender Gill and Pardeep Narwal are in good form after clinching nine raid points each in UP's last match, a 40-36 win over Maninder Singh's Bengal Warriors. In the process, Gill also became the first raider from the side this season to cross the milestone of 100 raid points which is significant given the time it has taken Pardeep to find his rhythm. Even the defense was solid with the corner duo of Sumit and Nitesh scoring a total of seven tackle points.
6:45PM: The 2022 edition of the Sportstar Aces Awards is back and we are celebrating the marvellous year for Indian Sports that 2021 was. From Neeraj Chopra and the other Olympic and Paralympic medallists to the Indian cricket team, we have a bunch of nominees who need your vote to win! Support your favourite athlete/team here .
6:35PM: Another helpful reminder of the rules. If you need it!
6:30PM: Hello folks! Welcome to our live coverage of the first game of the evening between UP Yoddha and Haryana Steelers. Before we get to that, here is our review of the season so far by my colleague Lavanya Lakshminarayanan -
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