UP Yoddha outplayed Tamil Thalaivas 42-22 and Gujrat Fortune Giants played 28-28 draw with Jaipur Pink Panthers in the ongoing Pro kabaddi League at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Saturday.

Tamil Thalaivas started their game with utter composure, aggression at the right instances and ruled the first half. Rahul Chaudhari rolled back the years with his fine raiding, reminiscent of his days at the lead raider for the Telugu Titans, while in defence Ran Singh and Abishek were having an equally good match.

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In the 10th minute of the game, the Thaialvas picked up their first All-out to open a five-point lead. But the problem with the Thalaivas this season have been their inability to be clinical and they allowed UP Yoddha back into the match with a few errors creeping up in the defence. Shrikant Jadhav then produced a stellar four-point Super Raid in the last move of the half to reduce Thalaivas’ lead to a single point. The half ended with the Chennai-based team edging UP 14-13.

UP Yoddha inflicted their first All-Out in the first minute after the restart and it was one-way carnage post that by the UP team. Shrikant Jadhav and Surinder Gill stepped up in the raids as points came easy via an error-prone Tamil defence while on the other side Sumit and Ashu Singh were having a night to remember in the UP defence.

The UP team inflicted another All-Out in the 8th minute of the half to move to a 10-point lead. Sumit picked a High 5 as the trend continued with UP Yoddha clinching yet another All-Out with five minutes left in the match to all but secure the win. The team tested their bench in the final minutes as they saw out the victory that helped them jump to fourth on the points table. The match ended Thalaivas’ hope of making it to the playoffs.

Meanwhile, before this match at the same venue, home team Jaipur Pink Panthers played out a highly entertaining 28-28 tie against Gujarat Fortune Giants.

It is to note that this was the 100th match of Pro Kabaddi League season seven. Both defences produced a masterclass in the match of the Jaipur leg in front of a packed audience but the Pink Panthers will rue missing out on a win despite being on a healthy lead for most of the first half.

In the second half, Vishal picked up a High 5 for Jaipur but the Gujarat defence picked their game up to halt the Jaipur dominance. The visitors picked up their All-Out in the 7th minute of the second half to cut short Jaipur’s lead to two points. The match continued to be played on the defence as both sets of defenders kept thwarting all the raiders who came their way. Carrying the momentum, Gujarat moved to a three-point lead with under four minutes left in the match through a successful raid by Sachin and a tackle by Parvesh Bhainswal.

But Vishal pulled out a successful Super Tackle to once again make it a one-point match in the dying minutes. Nitin Rawal pulled out another Super Tackle to level the points at 24-24 with under 3 minutes left to play. Gujarat must have felt like they had secured a tie when they successfully tackled Deepak Hooda but Jaipur’s Nitin Rawal produced yet another Super Tackle to give the Pink Panthers the lead. The Jaipur All-Rounder secured his High 5 in the process but he was tackled in the final play of the match by Gujarat to end the match on a tie.

(With inputs from IANS)