Mumbai: The Telugu Titans and UP Yoddha Pro Kabaddi League match Friday ended in a tie with both teams at 20-20. The two sides were locked at 19-19 with 30 seconds left for the match when Telugu’s star raider Siddharth Desai attempted the final raid.
UP player Sumit went out of the mat and thus Telugu got a crucial point and had almost won the game on 20-19 before an unexpected thing happened. Desai’s teammates entered the mat before the final whistle was blown, resulting in UP being given a technical point by match officials, leading to the match ending as a tie.
Earlier, raider Siddharth Desai collected two points as Telugu were 2-1 ahead. But in the sixth minute, UP removed Siddharth as he went in for an unsuccessful raid to reduce the gap to 3-5. But within seconds, Siddharth was back on the field, after UP raider was successfully tackled by Telugu Titans even as the southern team surged 7-3 ahead.
A successful raid by Monu Goyat and two successful tackles helped UP to reduce the deficit to 6-7 in the 12th minute. The two teams were locked in a neck-and-neck battle, even as Telugu inched ahead to 9-7.
But with some good tackles and raids, UP made it 11-11 going into the break. Telugu began the second half with a successful tackle to go 12-11 ahead, but UP pulled back one to make it 12-12. UP raider Shrikant Jadhav failed under pressure as Telugu picked up a point to make it 13-12.
But even Telugu star raider Siddharth faltered again as UP collected a point to make it 13-13. With just 9 minutes to go, the two sides were locked at 15-15.
However, a couple of successful tackles and with Siddharth picking up a point, Telugu moved 18-15 ahead.
But a timely Super Tackle by UP Yoddha followed by a successful raid helped UP Yoddha again level the scores at 18-18.
Both the teams successfully tackled their opponent player as the scores were levelled at 19-19 before the drama unfolded.
MUMBAI-GUJARAT
In the second match of the day, U Mumba registered a comfortable 32-20 win over Gujarat Fortunegiants. This was Gujarat’s first defeat in their fourth game as their raiders and defenders put a sub-par show and were no match for Mumbai.