Bengaluru: UP Yoddha, the GMR Group owned franchise in PKL, missed the wining flight losing 44-38 to Puneri Paltans.
Surender Gill’s ‘Super10’ that included a heroic performance and multiple multi-point raids saw him emerge as the top scorer for UP Yoddha with 16 valuable raid points.
However it was his crucial multi point raid in the final few seconds of the game that helped the Yoddha’s earn a solitary point from the game even after a loss. For UP Yoddha Pardeep Narwal & Shrikant Jadhav also added 6 and 5 points respectively to their scores.
UP Yoddha are now placed 7th in the table with 40 points to their kitty. UP Yoddha started on a slow note being inflicted by a ‘Super Raid’ in the first few seconds of the game.
The Yoddhas gave away points in quick succession due to some careless play trailing Puneri Paltan 3-9 in the 7th minute. The Paltan’s raced ahead by inflicting an ‘All-Out’ on UP Yoddha the very next minute with the scoreboard reading 5-13 to the formers favour.
With 5 minutes left in the half, Skrikant Jadav stepped up his game with able support from Nitesh Kumar and Sumit as the Yoddha’s tried making a comeback reducing the deficit, as the scoreboard read 14-21 to the Paltan’s favour.
Surender Gill once again shined bright as he was instrumental in inflicting an ‘All-Out’ on Puneri Paltan in the final moments of the first half. \
As a result of this the Yoddha’s further reduced the deficit as the first half came to an end with the scoreboard reading 18-21 to the Paltan’s favour. The second half saw UP Yoddha giving away points early on, trailing 26-20 in the 25th minute.
Moments later the Yoddha’s were inflicted with another ‘All-Out’ in the 27th minute, and they now found themselves trailing 20-31.
Surender Gill again came to UP Yoddha’s rescue with a super performance as he earned 8 crucial points in one minute that included a ‘Super Raid’ followed by an ‘All-Out’ on Puneri Paltan, further cutting down the lead to 32-36 in the 32nd minute.
However, the Yoddhas could not maintain their momentum giving away easy points that saw them trailing at 34- 42 with just two minutes left in the game.
However, Surender Gill again stepped up with a crucial multi-point raid in the final seconds of the game to keep the losing margin for UP Yoddha within 6 points thereby earning one point for his team. The game ended with UP Yoddha being defeated 38-44 by Puneri Paltan.
UP Yoddha have ABP News as their lead sponsor, while Iodex, Socios.com & Encalm Lounge have joined hands as principal sponsors. Adding to that, Amaze Inverters & Lifelong have come on board as associate sponsors.