UP Yoddha registered a two point win over Dabang Delhi in an evenly poised battle between the two North Indian sides.
The match saw four raiders, two from each sides with SUPER 10s to their names. Chandran Ranjit and young Naveen Kumar Goyat were the star performers for the Eagles, while Prashant Kumar Rai and Shrikant Jadhav from UP Yoddha achieved SUPER 10s for UP Yoddha.
The Eagles had a flying start and were leading 6-3 at one point of time in the first-half. Naveen was all over the UP Yoddha's defence scoring both raid points and bonus when it was on offer.
The 18-year-old was well assisted by another man in-form, Chandran Ranjit. But both the raiders couldn't do much, as our defence was not having their best day on the mat.
Dabang Delhi were all out twice inside the first-half and after first 20 minutes of play, the score was Dabang Delhi 17, UP Yoddha 25.
Despite conceding a good lead, our boys were not ready to give up and we saw a rejuvenated Dabang Delhi in the second half of the game.
Naveen achieved his second SUPER 10 this season, followed by Chandran Ranjit who also went on to score his second Super 10 of his PKL career. In the last 5 minutes, Dabang Delhi were leading the game and also kept things tight and didn't allow any bonus points to the Yoddhas. But things changed after a failed tackle that saw Captain Joginder Narwal and Ravinder Pahal give UP two points and a lead of one point.
Our team was now trailing and Naveen couldn't do much in the last crucial raid and was tackled by Narender with a strong ankle hold.
With the defeat, the Eagles are at fourth position in Zone A and will now face Puneri Paltan on 31st October at the same venue. With one win already over the Pune-based franchise this season, Joginder Narwal and his men will look to forget last night's defeat and turn things around in the next match.