Pune, Dec 8 (UNI) Gagan Gowda continued to play a starring role for UP Yoddhas in PKL Season 11 as he led his side to an important win against Puneri Paltan in the Badminton Hall at the Balewadi Sports Complex, here.
UP Yoddhas won 36-33 on Saturday night with Gagan Gowda scoring 15 points. For Puneri Paltan, Pankaj Mohite scored 11 points.
The in-form Gagan Gowda got UP Yoddhas off to a quick start and his defenders backed him well as they picked up an early lead.
However, Puneri Paltan, cheered on by the home crowd, had the skipper Akash Shinde leading by example in the initial exchanges. But just after the five-minute mark, Gagan Gowda landed a Super Raid, picking up three important points.
It was an action-packed first 10 minutes in the game as both Puneri Paltan and UP Yoddhas were looking to score quickly. Midway through the first half, however, the advantage was with UP Yoddhas, who led by 4 points.
A few minutes later, UP Yoddhas inflicted an All-Out on Puneri Paltan and significantly increased their advantage over the home team.
As the half wore on, all the players in the starting line-up had scored points for UP Yoddas with Gagan Gowda, Bhavani Rajput, Hitesh and Sumit leading the way. That wasn’t the case with Puneri Paltan, who were finding it tough to go through the gears.
At the half-time break, UP Yoddhas led 21-11.
The second half started off in similar fashion as UP Yoddhas were out of the blocks quicker and their tall raiders were taking big strides away from Puneri Paltan.
The defending champions stuck to their plans and foiled a couple of crucial attacks, including a Mohit Goyat Super Tackle on Gagan Gowda, which brought the deficit down to five points.
Suddenly, Puneri Paltan were looking like a very different team as Pankaj Mohite, Mohit Goyat and Aryavardhan Navale were leading the charge and had wrestled away the momentum from UP Yoddhas.
At the half-hour mark, it was anybody’s game with the difference between both sides at 5 points.
With less than 10 minutes in the game, Gagan Gowda completed his Super 10. For Puneri Paltan, there was still quite a bit to do and even though Pankaj Mohite was doing his best, Gagan Gowda was proving to be the difference.
Eventually, Puneri Paltan drove UP Yoddhas close, but the defending champions fell just short.
