In a match dominated by raiders, UP Yoddha defeated Puneri Paltan 50-40 in their Pro Kabaddi Season 8 match at the Sheraton Grand, Whitefield in Bengaluru on Monday. 

This match saw a whopping 64 raid points being shared between the teams, with UP Yoddha scoring just four more than Puneri Paltan.

Four super 10s were secured in this game, with two coming from each team. Surender Gill scored 21 raid points and Pardeep Narwal bagged 10 raid points for UP Yoddha while Aslam Inamdar finished with 16 raid points and Mohit Goyat earned 13 raid points for Puneri Paltan. 

Pardeep Narwal kick-started the proceedings with a three-point super raid, setting the tone for the raiders to have a field day. 

Puneri Paltan came back aggressively, inflicting an all-out on UP Yoddha in the first seven minutes of the match, taking an 11-7 lead, and extending it to 15-8 in the first 10 minutes of the game. 

Back-to-back multi-point raids from Shrikant Jadhav and Surender Gill, however, reduced the deficit to a single point. UP Yoddha soon inflicted an all-out against Puneri Paltan and went up 17-16 in the 13th minute. The teams ended the first half at 20-all. 

UP Yoddha accelerated in the second half with a massive four-point super raid from Surender Gill, pushing the team to 26-21. Puneri Paltan then suffered another all-out, earning UP Yoddha a 29-22 lead in the first four minutes of the second half. 

In the first 10 minutes of the second half, UP Yoddha touched 40 points while Puneri Paltan were at 25 after being handed their third all-out of the game. 

From here on, both teams scored steadily. Despite Aslam Inamdar’s consecutive successful raids bringing down the deficit, Surender Gill, Pardeep Narwal and a defensive unit led by Nitesh Kumar did enough to retain a 10-point lead in the end. 

With this victory, UP Yoddha are placed fourth on the PKL standings with 33 points. They will next play defending champions Bengal Warriors on Friday.