Panchkula (Haryana) [India], February 21 : Puneri Paltan produced a stellar comeback as they overturned a 13-point deficit to beat U.P. Yoddhas 40-38 and finish at the top of the points table in the Pro Kabaddi League Season 10 on Wednesday.
U.P. Yoddhas' raider Gagana Gowda was the star of the evening with 16 raid points, while Pankaj Mohite was Puneri Paltan's top-scorer with 12 raid points.
U.P. Yoddhas were playing for pride coming into this game and that showed in their approach as they were the better team for the initial 20 minutes. Gagana led U.P. Yoddhas' charge with a stunning super raid that got the better of Mohammadreza Shadloui Chiyaneh, Abinesh Nadarajan and Vahid Reza Eimehr. That raid gave U.P. Yoddhas a 5-1 lead in the 3rd minute, which only grew further.
Gulveer Singh joined the party with a 2-point raid and U.P. Yoddhas inflicted the all out in the 8th minute to lead 12-7. Puneri Paltan, who have PKL 10's best defence, struggled to find any momentum as they had just 2 tackle points in 13 minutes as the opposition led 18-10.
Gagana proved his mettle once again in the 15th minute with a magnificent 5-point super raid that wiped out the Puneri Paltan defence and propelled U.P. Yoddhas to a 24-13 lead. The men in blue dominated the proceedings in the 1st half as they ended the half with a 13-point lead at 28-15.
Puneri Paltan got reinforcements from the bench as Aslam Inamdar and Sanket Sawant were brought on as Pankaj went berserk early in the 2nd half. He produced a brilliant 2-point raid to complete his super 10 and reduce the U.P. Yoddhas to 1 man. Puneri Paltan needed a total of 5 minutes as they bagged an all out and reduced their deficit from 13 to just 6 at 24-30.
Puneri Paltan switched gears as they had the opposition down to three men again in the 30th minute when Shadloui stopped Gulveer with an iron-clad ankle hold. Aslam struck soon after as the men in orange bagged another all out in the 34th minute when Sumit was tackled by Abinesh. The scoreline read 35-34 in Puneri Paltan's favour and this was the first time they led in the encounter.
U.P. Yoddhas took a late lead with less than 3 minutes to go when Gagana struck with another multi-point raid, but it was not meant to be for them as Aslam levelled the scores with a 2-pointer and Shadloui's tackle on Mahipal sealed the win for Puneri Paltan. They finished with their 17th win of the season to go into the playoffs as the top-ranked team.
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