Gujarat Fortunegiants on Thursday held their nerve to defeat a resurgent UP Yoddha 38-31 in a thrilling Qualifier 2 here on Thursday to enter the final of Pro Kabaddi League season six.
Gujarat Fortunegiants will clash against Bengaluru Bulls in the summit clash scheduled to take place on January 5 at the NSCI in Worli.
In the second Qualifier, where the pendulum swung till the end, Gujarat emerged on top courtesy their breath-taking raids and equally stunning tackles.
For Gujarat Fortunegiants, Sachin Tanwar (10 points) was the most successful raider. While K Prapanjan (5 points) and Rohit Gulia (5 points) also contributed to Gujarats win. Sunil Kumar, Iranian Hadi Oshtorak and Sachin Vittala grabbed three points each for Gujarat.
While the first half was closely contested, there was no stopping Gujarat in the initial part of second half as they did not allow UP to even fetch a single point in the eight minutes and also inflicted another all-out raid to double their lead to 28-14.
After that, UP did stage a comeback into the game and also inflicted an all-out on Gujarat to make it 27-34, with three minutes remaining for the final whistle. Then they made it 30-34, but as they were playing the catching up game, they ended up on the losing note.
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Earlier, Sachin Tanwar gave Gujarat their first two points. Sachin attempted another successful raid to make it 4-1 in his team's favour.
However, UP did a few successful raids to make it 4-5, with 15 minutes remaining for the first half. And a successful tackle by the UP helped them to level scores at 5-5.
UP Yoddha meant business and were closing in on the gap. However, Gujarat surged ahead, with a successful raid, followed by a successful tackle and then inflicted an all-out' to move up 19-14 at the half-way mark.
After the change of ends, after a slew of empty raids by the two sides, Gujarat surged ahead as they led 28-14 before sealing the tie.