UP Yoddha forced yet another tie, their third in Pro Kabaddi Season 8, against Haryana Steelers as a close game came to an end at 36-all at Sheraton Grand, Whitefield in Bengaluru.

Surender Gill got his third super 10 of Pro Kabaddi 8 and topped the scoring chart for UP Yoddha with 13 raid points and a tackle point. Pardeep Narwal and Shrikant Jadhav got six and five raid points, respectively.

Haryana Steelers’ captain Vikash Kandola, meanwhile, picked up 17 raid points and his third super 10 of Pro Kabaddi Season 8. Meetu Mahender backed him up with six raid points. Surender Nada top-scored among defenders with a five-point high 5.

Haryana Steelers adopted an interesting approach, playing five defenders and just two raiders, Vikash Kandola and Meetu Mahender for the majority of the game.

The Haryana Steelers took a 4-1 lead early on. However, an on-song Pardeep Narwal scored five raid points in the first 10 minutes of the game to take UP Yoddha up 7-5.

Within the ninth minute of the game, UP Yoddha inflicted an all-out against the Steelers, going up 11-7.

Haryana Steelers, however, staged a clean comeback, closing in on UP Yoddha 13-14 at half-time with Shrikant Jadhav, Pardeep Narwal and Sumit off the mat.

UP Yoddha steadily took the lead to 19-16, but Surender Nada’s tackle followed by Vikash Kandola’s raid equalised it for the Steelers.

Surender Gill then pulled off the first of his many multiple-point raids of this game with a super raid that took UP Yoddha to 22-19, leaving Haryana Steelers with just two men.

With 10 minutes to go, UP Yoddha inflicted yet another all-out on the Steelers, leading 26-20 and they extended the lead to 9 points with seven minutes to go in the game.

Riding on Vikash Kandola’s raids, Haryana Steelers started scripting a comeback once more. UP Yoddha led 31-26 with three minutes remaining, but Shrikant and Gurdeep were the only men standing.

Despite a raid from Shrikant bringing in Sumit, Vikash pulled off a five-point super raid that included two all-out points, pushing Haryana Steelers dangerously close to UP Yoddha at 31-32.

Both Surender Gill and Vikash Kandola pulled off two 2-point raids, before Kandola equalised the scores at 36-all. A tense 30 seconds passed with Surender Gill finishing with an empty raid, as the game ended in a draw.

With this result, both UP Yoddha and Haryana Steelers have 23 points each. UP Yoddha are in the sixth position with a -2 score difference and Haryana Steelers are eighth with -30.

UP Yoddha will play their next match against Telugu Titans on Saturday.