PKL: Pune edge past UP in thrilling tie

Chennai, Sep 30 (IANS) Continuing their good form in the Chennai leg, Puneri Paltan edged past UP Yoddha 34-33 in the Inter Zone Challenge Week of the fifth Pro Kabaddi League here on Saturday.

The star against Tamil Thalaivas in Friday's match, Pune's skipper Deepak Hooda scored three super raids and ended with 16 points for His team.

On the other hand, Sagar Krishna scored six tackle points for UP Yoddha and Rishank Devadiga contributed nine tackle points.

Hooda made a super raid in the fifth minute to give Puneri Paltan 5-2 lead but Devadiga responded with a super raid as the Yoddha leveled it at 5-5 in the seventh minute.

Hooda scored with another super raid in the eighth minute to lead 9-5, but his opponents forced a super tackle in the 10th minute as they trailed 8-9.

The next few minutes of the first half were keenly contested as both teams were level at 11-11 after 15 minutes.

Monu scored with a two-point raid as Pune led 15-12 in the 18th minute. They then inflicted an all out in the next minute as they led 18-14 at the end of the first half.

Hooda was in fine form as he came up with another super raid in the 22nd minute to give his team a 22-14 lead.

In the 25th minute, Pune inflicted another all out to lead 28-17.

Trailing by 12 points with 11 minutes left on the clock, the Yoddha mounted a comeback as Nitin Tomar got into the act and scored two points in the 31st minute.

They then inflicted an all out to cut the lead to just four points, and with less than five minutes to go, they came back on level terms as they tied the match at 32-32.

Devadiga scored a raid point in the 37th minute to give his team a 33-32 lead but Suresh Kumar got Puneri Paltan on equal footing with a raid point in the 38th minute and the team scored a tackle point in the last minute to win the match 34-33.