UP Yoddha narrowly missed the winning flight against defending champions Bengal Warriors in their opening game in the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
In other matches on the day, Telegu Titans and Tamil Thalaivas finished the match at 40-40, while U Mumba beat Bengaluru Bulls 46-30.
UP Yoddha, who started on a slow note, put up a valiant fight towards the end, but narrowly missed their chances for a win as they lost 33-38 to the Bengal Warriors. For the Yoddha's their star player Pardeep Narwal earned the 8 raid points followed by 5 points from Surender Gill, while captain Nitesh Kumar and Ashu Singh earned 3 tackle points each. UP Yoddha are currently placed fifth on the points table with 1 point to their kitty.
UP Yoddha started at a slow pace giving away points to Bengal Warriors. The Yoddha lost 12 crucial points in the first 8 minutes but slowly made a comeback through Pardeep Narwal's streak of intelligent raids.
Pardeep who stood tall to his experience ensured that the Warriors were forced to make mistakes as he earned a total of 8 points for UP Yoddha. Both sides shared 2 all-out points while the first half came to an end with a score line of 18-18.
The second half again saw the Warriors start on a strong note. The Warriors raced ahead through their raider Nabibakhsh who came for a do-or-die raid in the 23rd minute but ended up going back with a super raid earning 4 vital points.
Minutes later UP Yoddha was inflicted with an All-Out and found themselves trailing 29-20 at the 26th minute.
However, the Yoddha's made a strong comeback through some successful raids and very effective tackles but couldn't make up the point deficit as the match came to a nail-biting finish in favour of Bengal Warriors.
UP Yoddha will play their next match against Patna Pirates on Saturday at the Sheraton Grand Whitefield Convention Centre.
