U.P. Yoddhas, the team owned by GMR Group, put up a brave show before going down 31-40 to Puneri Paltan in their last home leg game of Pro Kabaddi 2023-24, at the Noida Indoor Stadium, Noida.

The Yoddhas, who started on a slow note, came back more robust in the latter half of the game with an all-round performance, but unforced errors in the final five minutes cost them dearly. For the Yoddhas, Captain Pardeep Narwal was the most successful raider with six points to his kitty, followed by Gagna Gowda and Vijay Malik, who earned four and two points, respectively. Amongst the defenders, Sumit and Nitesh both made their High 5s, earning six and five points, respectively. U.P. Yoddhas are now placed tenth in the pro kabaddi league standings with 21 points to their kitty.

U.P. Yoddhas will now face Tamil Thalaivas in Mumbai on January 10, 2024. The match between U.P. Yoddhas and Tamil Thalaivas will be telecast LIVE on Star Sports Network and can be streamed LIVE on Disney Hotstar on January 10, from 08:00 p.m. (IST) onwards.

U.P. Yoddhas lost the toss and were invited to raid first by Puneri Paltan. The Paltan started the game aggressively and kept pressing hard with back-to-back points. U.P. Yoddhas had to be on the backfoot as none of their raiders were working, while the Paltans kept attacking hard. A super-tackle initiated by Nitesh in the first five minutes was the only ray of hope for the Yoddhas before facing an All Out as early as the sixth minute of the first half.

U.P. Yoddhas, at this point, were trailing behind by a margin of six points, with the scorecard reading 4-10 in favour of the Paltans. The Paltans maintained their attacking mode even after the Yoddhas regrouped, accumulating five quick points while allowing only two to the latter.

It was with another Super Tackle from U.P. Yoddhas when fans saw what they are made of. U.P. Yoddhas kept fighting for the rest of the game, starting with Vijay Malik’s multi-point raid. Pardeep Narwal hereon wreaked havoc on the Paltans as the Yoddhas added 14 points to their tally in the next 12 minutes before inflicting an All-Out on the Paltans in the 18^th minute of the first half.

The All-Out that was a result of a multi-point raid of Pardeep Narwal that also included a long struggle before Narwal’s hand crossed the line resulted in the Yoddhas now trailing by just two points. The first half after that ended with the scorecard reading 18-22 in favour of Puneri Paltans.

The second half began with a re-energised U.P. Yoddhas pressing hard to equalise but failed to edge past Paltan’s defensive line. U.P. Yoddhas kept accumulating points both on the offence and defence, but an extremely agile Puneri Paltan was always a couple of points ahead.

The Yoddhas had reduced their deficit to just two points with four minutes to go, but unforced errors led them to face another All-Out from the Paltans in the 18^th minute of the game. The game ended with U.P. Yoddhas going down 31-40 to Puneri Paltans.