PKL: U.P. Yoddha end home leg with solitary win vs Titans

After four consecutive losses and a draw, hosts U.P. Yoddha finally managed to register a 25-23 win against Telugu Titans in the final match of the Lucknow leg of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) Season 5 at the jampacked Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium here on Thursday.

Home skipper Nitin Tomar scored crucial points for his team in the dying minutes to help the hosts sail through.

The first half once again turned out to be a neck and neck contest with both the Zone B teams squaring off more than thrice before the Titans sneaked past to take a slender 12-10 lead.

After four empty raids, the scoreboard started ticking with the home side getting the early lead but Rishank Devadiga's unsuccessful raid helped the visitors level the scores after the initial two minutes.

The pendulum continued to swing either way until the first 11 minutes when both the teams were locked at 5-5 before the home team surged ahead to lead 9-5.

With five minutes left, the visitors bounced back in style, thanks to successful raids from Vinoth Kumar and Nilesh Salunke.

The next few minutes witnessed the tide turning in favour of the visiting side before the Yoddhas took full advantage of Rahul Chaudhuri's unsuccessful raid to level the scores at 10-10.

The Titans however, managed to get back the lead reaching 12-10 at half time.

The home side came back strongly to level the scores immediately into the second half and further extend it to 15-13, thanks to Mahesh Goud's two points with a brilliant raid.

Nitin Tomar's side managed to hold on to their 18-16 lead until the 35th minute before extending it further to 20-19.

The drama was left for the final few minutes once again, with Rahul Chaudhari's successful raid point helping the visitors equalise at 20-20 in the 35th minute which followed a dry run of four empty raids.

With just three minutes left into the game, Titans' Iranian import Mohsen Maghsoudlou's successful raid helped them get back the lead to 21-20.

But unlike the previous matches of the Lucknow leg, Nitin kept his calm to score two crucial points in the last minute and give the home fans a sigh of relief.

--IANS

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