Pune, Oct 20 (IANS) Bengal warriors’ winning streak came to a halt as UP Yoddhas forced them to play a draw in the 25th match of the Pro Kabaddi League here on Saturday.
UP’s Prashant Kumar Rai became the game changer as his crucial two successive raid points in the dying seconds denied Bengal their third win in the ongoing league.
Maninder Singh bagged 16 raid points for Bengal while Prashant picked 13 as the contest resulted in a thriller.
Jang Kun Lee made some successful raids to make Bengal lead 4-0 however, UP Yoddhas slowly rode on some fine tackles to make the contest 5-6 before the scores were tied at 8-8.
Both the sides showed equal fight to again be tied at 12-12. UP’s Maninder then collected couple of points to stretch his team’s lead to 15-12, but Jang replied back with a successful raid to cut the deficit to one point.
Bengal however, failed in stopping UP from picking another three points in the last minutes of the first half, while it could only manage a single point as the scoreline read 18-15 at half-time.
In the second half, Rishank came with a heroic performance, collecting three raid points, while and a successful tackle made UP leading the charge 24-18.
UP continued to lead the momentum, thanks to captain Rishank, as they extended the lead to 27-19.
Bengal’s star raider Jang not only failed in replicating his first half show but also faultered in the second half as Bengal had no answer to UP’s attack, which took ma massive 30-24 lead in the last few minutes.
Maninder showed some fighting spirit as the raider picked two points in as many raids to make the contest 30-26.
Later, Rishank’s unsuccesful raid followed by Maninder’s another successful raid bought Bengal back in the contest as they made 28-30 in the 34th minute.
Bengal then inflicted an all-out in the 35th minute to level the score 32-32 through a tackle. Their defence later made them lead the issue 34-32 before Maninder’s successful raid gave them another one points as Bengal took a 35-33 lead but UP’s Prashant replied back through a fine raid to once again cut the deficit to one point.
Bengal’s Mnainder and UP’s Prashant each collected few points through some successful raids as once again both the teams found themselves tied at 38-38 before the former grabbed couple of points to hand Bengal a 40-38 lead.
In a cruch situation, Prashant, who seemed unstoppable, collected a bonus point before taking a match tying raiding point to help UP deny a defeat as the contest resulted in a 40-40 draw.
–IANS
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