Dabang Delhi beats UP Yoddhas to climb into top six

NOIDA: A superlative Dabang Delhi put UP Yoddhas to the sword, as it won 35-25 at the Noida Indoor Stadium in the Pro Kabaddi League Season 10 match on Saturday. Raider Ashu Malik and defender Ashish were the standout performers for Delhi on the day.

In as much as this was the UP Yoddhas home turf it was also Dabang Delhi’s, and in the early going it revelled in it. Five minutes into the game Ashu Malik’s SUPER RAID, the first of the evening put Dabang Delhi KC in front and from thereon over the next few minutes it barely put a foot wrong in the game. Despite a brief resistance led by Surender Gill, Dabang inflicted the first ALL OUT to take a 13-7 lead.

The half was defined by high class raiding and some lacklustre defending with both teams logging a mere five tackle points in the half. In Naveen Kumar’s absence Dabang Delhi’s raiding trio split 13 points between them to keep the lead intact as they went into the break.

The UP Yoddhas silently chipped away at the Dabang Delhi numbers and the lead to put it on the ropes early in the second half. A strong SUPER TACKLE by Yogesh on Pardeep Narwal though saved it the blushes. That tackle also led to UP Yoddhas’ defender Nitesh Kumar being handed a yellow card for ill-discipline, tilting the game back into Delhi’s favour, which extended its lead.

If the first half had been a raiding paradise, the second proved to be one for the defenders to make hay. The UP Yoddhas spent the final five minutes of the game mostly with three players on the mat, desperately trying to cut away at the Dabang Delhi lead.

But for every tackle it made, Delhi matched it perfectly, and then came the coup de grace with the final raid of the evening. Malik went in for Delhi knowing that just letting time tick away would confirm the win and yet, with ten seconds left he jumped in, got all three UP Yoddhas players to inflict a second ALL OUT and take a brilliant win.

U Mumba defeatsTelugu Titans 52-34

U Mumba notched up its fourth victory on the trot as it beat bottom-placed Telugu Titans 52-34. U Mumba had a bunch of star performers as Guman Singh [10 raid points], Rinku [8 tackle points] and Sombir [8 tackle points] shined on the big stage.

U Mumba Iranian raider Amirmohammad Zafardanesh executed a stunning raid to get rid of 3 defenders in the 11th minute. He came back to torment the Titans’ defence again when he got the better of Milad Jabbari and Parvesh Bhainswal to inflict the ALL OUT. With 5 minutes left in the first half, U Mumba led 17-12.