UP Yoddhas put up an all-round masterclass to overpower the Haryana Steelers 57-27 at the EKA Arena by TransStadia on Wednesday.
A complete team performance was highlighted by the brilliance of raiders Surender Gill (13 points) & Pardeep Narwal (12 points) and defender Sumit (8 points).
The initial minutes of the game were marked by the two sides exchanging points at regular intervals, albeit the Yoddhas doing it via touch points and the Steelers reliant on bonus points.
With their numbers dwindling quickly, the Steelers’ Ashish carried out a Super tackle on Pardeep Narwal to help his team stay in the contest.
Despite that brief resistance, the Yoddhas were too good on the attacking front, and within minutes, they inflicted the first All out of the game on the Steelers to take a commanding 12-6 lead.
Despite a brief regrouping by the Steelers, the game followed a similar pattern, with the Yoddhas, and Surender Gill in particular, being completely dominant. Almost single-handedly, Gill inflicted a second All out on the Steelers with four minutes of the first half to go, to give them a 29-14 lead at the break.
A third and fourth all-out followed within the first 8 minutes of the second half. With a massive 25-point lead, the Yoddhas seemed to be cruising to an easy win.
Gill’s raiding brilliance was perfectly complemented by Sumit and Nitesh Kumar’s brilliant tackling and there seemed to be nothing the Steelers could do to curb the wave.
The Yoddhas continued to put pressure on their opponents relentlessly and eventually wrapped up a massive 30-point victory.