In a see-sawing match where the advantage went hither and tither, UP Yoddhas ensured that they didn't lose their nerve and came out victorious. The stars of the match were raider Shrikant Jadhav and defender Nitesh Kumar, both scoring seven points.
The first half started with Bengal captain Maninder Singh getting the first point of the game with a successful raid. However, it was the Warriors' defence that was going to play a key role in their further success in the first half of the match.
The defenders of Bengal started making an impact with the successful tackling of UP's star raider Rishank Devadiga. However, the Warriors fought back by tackling out Maninder in the fourth minute. But Shrikant Jadhav didn't let the Bengal team capitalize by pulling off a successful raid.
But then the tide began to turn slightly when K Prapanjan of Bengal got two players eliminated in his raid. This was followed by Jadhav getting tackled out in the eighth minute to give Warriors a 6-2 lead. But then their captain Maninder got tackled out as well very soon.
Then came a brilliant tackle from Bengal as Baldev Singh in the right corner of the team dashed across to tackle Devadiga in the 11th minute to reduce Yoddhas to just three men. The advantage was now firmly with Bengal.
Then came the fightback from UP with Esmail Nabibaksh getting super tackled by UP team and the score becoming 7-6 in Bengal's favour. The latter team extended their advantage slightly with another good tackle. Nabibaksh increased the lead to 9-6 with a successful raid.
UP were down to two men but then they made an important substitution and brought in raider Ankush who got two players out immediately in his raid. With Prapanjan tackled soon, the score was 9-9. Yoddhas then went into the lead with Prapanjan's elimination.
But the Warriors re-established their lead when a super tackle led by Rinku got them two points. UP though, regained parity thanks to a good tackle of Nabibaksh. But the super tackle of Sumit by Bengal gave them a two-point advantage at the end of first half as the score read 13-11.
It didn't take long for UP to draw level in the second half. But a super tackle took Bengal back into lead with 15-13 scoreline. But soon, the Warriors were struggling when a great raid from Jadhav reduced Bengal to just two men. Eventually, an all-out was inflicted in the sixth minute of the second half as UP went 19-17 ahead.
UP then looked like running away with the game as the lead increased to four points. But Bengal kept their fighting spirit as the deficit was reduced to just one point. Then a cat and mouse game ensued as both teams exchanged points. Eventually, it was the successful tackle of Jadhav which levelled things 23-23.
With about five minutes to go, UP were leading by a solitary point. Then, Surender Gill increased the lead to two with a raid followed by an important tackle of Maninder as Yoddhas now lead by three points.
Nabibaksh managed to get two points in one raid to make the game 27-26. But the one-point deficit couldn't be overcome by Bengal as UP went on a point-scoring spree with tackles and successful raids and the lead was soon four points and score 31-27.
The game was almost in the bag of UP and when one of Bengal's defender's fouled, the Warriors were reduced to two men with less than a minute to go. With the score reading 31-29, the last raid of the match, from Amit began. He had just two men opposing him but that meant that if he was super tackled, Bengal would win the match. The defender on the right tried to tackle but failed and with Amit touching the line, this Pro Kabaddi match ended 32-29 in favour of Yoddhas.
