PKL 2018 | UP Yoddha secure Eliminator 3 berth after convincing win over U Mumba

ByPress Release, SportsCafe Editor

12/30/2018

Nitesh Kumar was the star of the show with an incredible 8 tackle points in ten attempts as UP Yoddha continued their superb run with a win over U Mumba. While Mumba didn't let the score get out of hand, they never really got close to UP, who dominated the game right from the off.

UP Yoddha produced a terrific all-round performance to knock out favourites U Mumba in the first eliminator of Vivo Pro Kabaddi League season 6. Yoddha won 34-29 and were in control for most of the match. In front of a packed crowd in Kochi, where PKL made its debut, it was the team from UP that came out on top. Nitesh Kumar came up with one of the best defensive performances and scored 8 points to lead UP to victory. UP Yoddha’s defence scored 18 tackle points on a night where they tamed U Mumba’s star raider Siddharth Desai. Desai scored just seven raid points but all credit to the Yoddha to contain him. Shrikant Jadhav and Prashant Kumar Rai combined to score 9 crucial raid points in UP’s win.

Both teams made a solid start and were on equal footing for the first five minutes. Shrikant Jadhav and Siddharth Desai picked up the raid points for their teams. It was 5-5 after five minutes but UP Yoddha switched gears then. In the 8th minute they inflicted an all out to leads 11-7. U Mumba were missing the spark and were a bit lacklustre in the first half. At the end of the first half Yoddha’s led 18-15 and it was anyone’s game.

UP Yoddha continued their fine form in the second half as well. Their defence did a fine job on Desai and Rohit Balliyan. Shrikant Jadhav picked up a two-point raid in the 27th minute to give UP Yoddha 25-18 lead. The second half followed the same pattern as the first with UP defence in solid form. Jeeva Kumar and Nitesh Kumar didn’t allow too many points and made crucial tackles throughout the match. Roshan Devadiga and Prashant Kumar Rai picked up raid points at crucial intervals.

You can check the raid by raid action here.