PKL 2018 | How UP Yoddha forged incredible comeback to get to virtual semi-final

01/03/2019

With so many good teams in Zone B, no one gave UP Yoddha a chance half-way into the tournament after their winless home leg in Noida. But, now the team from Uttar Pradesh has made it to the second qualifier in the playoffs and are one step away from playing their first ever final in the PKL.

UP Yoddha has the winning momentum completely in favour of them at this stage of the ongoing sixth season of the Pro Kabaddi League. They are currently in an eight-match unbeaten streak where they tied their only game against Tamil Thalaivas. The UP players are in such a form that their last defeat which came against Bengaluru Bulls was on November 26 which means that it has been more than a month that they haven’t lost a match this season. Prior to that, they were lying at the bottom half of the Zone B points table and they lost four consecutive games after a terrible home leg.

However, fortune changed dramatically for the team from Uttar Pradesh as it registered a hard-fought win against Haryana Steelers in the inter-zone challenge match in Delhi. Since then, the team is yet to lose a game and they are all set to take on last season’s runners-up team Gujarat Foortunegiants in the virtual semi-final tomorrow. They have their settled raiding combination of Rishank Devadiga, Prashanth Rai and Shrikant Jadhav while the defensive unit has been brilliant as well for them.

Right corner defender Nitesh Kumar is now leading the list of most tackle points with 94 points to his name which includes seven High 5s and as many Super Tackles in the season. In his last eight games, he has an average of more than four tackle points as he has secured 36 during this period. The four High 5s that he has registered in this period has made all the difference for UP Yoddha in their defence. His strong ankle holds have been very effective whenever a raider tries to attack the corner position of the mat. Again, he hasn’t risked too much with the advance tackles, which has helped him to stay on the mat for longer periods. In the two playoff games against U Mumba and Dabang Delhi, he got out only twice in both the matches.

Jeeva Kumar hasn’t performed as per the expectations from him in this season but the kind of performance that he has put up in the crucial games has helped the side big time. In the playoff stage, Jeeva collected five points against U Mumba and got three against Dabang Delhi which shows how important his contributions are in these two matches. He has helped out Nitesh in effecting ankle holds whenever it is necessary for the team. He has run in to stop the raiders as a support system for the right corner which has helped the team big time in last few encounters. His five tackle points against U Mumba ensured that the defence steps up for UP in Eliminator 1. It included a Super Tackle against Desai when they had only a three-point lead, it was a strong thigh hold with three men on the mat which helped them from not getting all-out.

They have defenders like Narender and Sachin Kumar at the cover and left corner position who looked really rash with their tackle moves in the initial games but have matured a lot towards the end. They have scored only 42 and 41 tackle points so far but the way they have shown the presence of mind in the last few games, it’s really praiseworthy.

Sachin has not only been an able defender for the team, but his raiding skills have also been used to full effect for the side. Nowadays, coach Jasveer Singh is using his left corner defender as a raider during Super Tackle situations. His quick and swift foot movement on the mat has always helped the team collect points on those occasions by forcing the defenders to make mistakes.

In the raiding department, the franchise owners decided to let go Nitin Tomar and apart from having a top raider in the team alongside Rishank Devadiga, they were happy to get in Prashanth Rai and Shrikant Jadhav who are effective in their own ways. Rishank was more like a time manager ensuring that he manages the clock well as per the match situation and being the captain of the team, he stuck to his duties really well. Both Prashanth and Shrikant are left-handed raiders but Prashanth mostly gets bonus points for the team and uses his height to maximum effect while Shrikant is someone who gets the touches and the management uses its raiders as per the number of opposition players present on the mat.

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In this season so far, Prashanth and Shrikanth have scored 139 and 134 points respectively while Rishank has got 99 raid points from 22 matches. Talking about the two playoffs, Shrikant and Rishank took five each while Prashanth managed only four against U Mumba which went on to show that they distributed the workload well and were not too risky against a strong defensive unit of U Mumba. Rishank went for nine empty raids which imply that he managed the clock well against the team which finished second on the Zone A points table. Against Dabang Delhi, the raiders were more attacking and Rai scored 13, while Rishank and Shrikant got eight and four respectively. Rishank had as many as six empty raids here as well.

Rishank came back to form in the last few matches getting nine and seven points in two last league matches against U Mumba and Bengal Warriors. The team management took an important decision in resting Rishank and playing with Bhanu Pratap Tomar as their third raider in one game against Bengaluru Bulls which was the last game they had lost in the tournament. After that game, the performance of the team went on to the next level with good contributions from all their three raiders.

Not just that, they also managed the players well with Sagar Krishna coming in as a substitute like they did against U Mumba which stopped Rohit Baliyan, a left raider to pick up points as Krishna stood at the right in position. An accomplished defender there ensured that Baliyan finds it difficult to steal the bonus point right under his nose there. He might prove effective against a left-handed raider like K Prapanjan in the Gujarat team in today’s game.

Not only the team combination or the proper player management by the franchise, the results against the Zone B teams in last one month were in favour of the team from Uttar Pradesh as well. They were lying below teams like Patna Pirates and Telugu Titans but in the phase of eight unbeaten matches, they also managed to beat Patna 47 - 31 and Telugu 27 - 20. Patna failed to collect a single losing point in that game as well.

In the hindsight, this made all the difference in their favour making UP the third team to qualify from the zone after Bengaluru Bulls and Bengal Warriors. Siddharth Desai’s injury in the game in the Kolkata leg helped them to win against a strong team like U Mumba while Bengal had nothing to lose in the final league encounter and they played will less intensity where the UP side managed to find another win to knock Patna out of the race for the playoffs.

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