PKL: UP Yoddha to face Gujarat Giants with play-off in their sights

UP Yoddha will aim to maintain their winning momentum as they face-off Gujarat Giants on Friday in the ongoing Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) season eight.

UP Yoddha who edged past Tamil Thalaivas with a thrilling 41-39 win on Wednesday have kept their playoff dreams alive and will need another three wins out of their final four games to consolidate their playoff spot.

The Yoddha currently have 52 points in their kitty and are placed 5th in the league standings.

For the Yoddha's the good news has been the return to form of their superstar raider Pardeep Narwal, who walked away with 13 raid points in their 41-39 win over Tamil Thalaivas yesterday.

The other raider who has impressed everyone this season is Surender Gill and his consistency is one the biggest strengths for UP Yoddha in their final few encounters in the league.

Gill, is currently placed 2nd in the 'Super Raid' chart and has managed to be in the Top 6 of every Raiding Stats, this season. His multi-point raids have on more than one occasion bailed the Yoddha's out of difficult situations this season.

Veteran Shrikant Jadhav also has been of great support to a strong raiding unit of UP Yoddha. However, it's the famed defense of UP Yoddha that would need some work, as the trio of Captain Nitesh Kumar, Ashu Singh and Sumit in the last 5 games haven't been able to impress much.

Ahead of the match, Jasveer Singh, Head Coach, UP Yoddha said, "The last two wins have certainly uplifted our morale, but the objective is not let go off this momentum. I've said earlier that now we do not have any margin for errors and every game is a must win game. Pardeep's form yesterday with support from Surender and Shrikant was a very positive development and I am confident that we as a team have the capability to make it to the play-offs. We are looking forward to our next clash and we are geared to end up with 5 points one more time".

UP Yoddha and Gujarat Giants in their PKL journey have faced each other 6 times with the Yoddha's edging them out only once while they had to settle with two ties.

The Yoddha's last encounter with the Giants earlier this season ended in a tie. Both UP Yoddha and Gujarat Giants will walk into the game with a win in their mind and to keep their playoff dreams alive this season.

( With inputs from ANI )

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