An excellent display from U.P. Yoddha saw them cap off a six-match unbeaten streak with a 41-25 win over Bengal Warriors at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Indoor Stadium in Kolkata to help them qualify for the Playoffs for the second season running. Nitesh Kumar managed a High 5 while skipper Rishank Devadiga returned nine raid points on the night to help U.P. Yoddha complete a memorable victory.
Devadiga got U.P. Yoddha their first two points of the night before Bengal Warriors put in successive two-point raids to put four points on the board. U.P. Yoddha’s defence came alive after that as they managed two Super Tackles; A Thigh Hold by Shrikant Jadhav on Maninder Singh in the 5th minute followed by an Ankle Hold by Narender on Amit Nagar in the 8th minute which levelled the game at 7-7.
Devadiga then got a touch on Ran Singh before Prashanth Kumar Rai got touches on Surjeet Singh and Ziaur Rehman to reduce Bengal Warriors to a solitary player on the mat. Nitesh Kumar’s Ankle Hold helped U.P. Yoddha inflict the first All-Out of the game in the 12th minute, with the scores reading 14-8.
Shrikant Jadhav got his first raid points of the night with touches on Ran Singh and Amit Nagar before Nitesh Kumar managed another Ankle Hold on Bhupender Singh. Jeeva Kumar got the final point of the half to help U.P. Yoddha take an eight-point advantage into half-time, with the scores reading 19-11.
U.P. Yoddha continued scoring freely in the second half, getting the first three points before Bengal Warriors got on the board. With Bengal Warriors down to two men on the mat, substitute Adarsh T managed a double Ankle Hold on Devadiga to record Bengal Warriors’ first Super Tackle of the game in the 5th minute.
Nitesh Kumar then got an Ankle Hold on Ameares Mondal to reduce Bengal Warriors to two players on the mat before Sachin Kumar got a touch on Adarsh T. and Ziaur Rahman stepped out of the playing area to give U.P. Yoddha their second All-Out of the game. U.P. Yoddha led by thirteen points at this point with the scores reading 27-14. Devadiga got the game’s first Super Raid in the 10th minute with touches on Mondal, Adarsh and Bhupender to put U.P. Yoddha fifteen points up.
An Ankle Hold by Nitesh on Nagar in the 13th minute got him his High 5 and this was followed by Sachin Kumar’s touch point to reduce Bengal Warriors to a solitary player on the mat. U.P. Yoddha then inflicted their third All-Out of the night by way of a Nitesh Kumar double Ankle Hold on Baldev Singh in the 15th minute. Some late heroics by Bhupender gave Bengal Warriors more points towards the end but the game ended 41-25 in U.P. Yoddha’s favour.
