What a thriller of a game we witnessed in Semi-final 2 clash between two prominent teams Parveen & Jasvir Academy and Amit Ashok Academy. Both teams dominated in their respective pools as well as in Super 6 Stage to reach in Semi’s comfortably. A match to remember by going into extra time to get the result, an outstanding comeback from Parveen & Jasvir Academy to take the game from the hand of Amit Ashok Academy to seal the spot for the final.
With the start of the game, both teams looked settled and came with the same combinations from their last game. AAA has been known for their defence in the whole tournament whereas raiders have been into limelight for P&J Academy. P&J Academy opened their account with a tackle to hold Ashu Malik. Vishal Chahal opened his team’s account with bonus for AAA. A 2-point raid was scored from P&J Academy’s Himanshu Virender to send cover and corner of AAA on the bench. Then, in form Ashu Malik came into the action with a 3-point super raid and getting momentum for his team. In form defender from AAA, Akshay Kumar made a solo tackle resulted in only 2 players left for P&J Academy on the mat. First all-out was inflected with another raid point from Ashu Malik to get a 5-point lead. In the last minute of first half, Narender Hoshiyar who was playing with a head bandage showing what this game means to him, scored a super raid to end the close first half with the score of 20-16 where AAA lead by 4 points going into 2nd half.
Another good start from AAA’s defence as they sent Himanshu on the bench. P&J Academy left with only 3 men on the mat made a super tackle to get valuable 2 points. But then again, with defence not looking in touch, an advance tackle attempt costed in 3rd all-out to P&J Academy. Ashu Malik looked unstoppable as he scored points continuously.
With the game going into last 10 minutes, AAA were in comfortable position to win the game and reach into finals. But then the man on mission, Narendra Hoshiyar came into the picture and changed the game single handily. He scored 2 successive super raids which enrolled the first all-out for P&J Academy. From this point, Narender took the game in his hands as he scored points in each raid and reduced the score difference from 12 points to just 3 points. From the situation where AAA could have easily won the game by playing on do-die raids, P&J Academy’s defence too shifted their gears as they sent both the AAA’s raiders on the bench and levelled the score with the game going into last minute. With the lead of only 1 point to AAA, the last raid of the match was the most important raid as the point from here would take the game to extra time with the scores getting equal. Another defence error helped Narender to get easy touch point and level the score in full time by 42-42.
Match went into an extra time of 3 minutes each to get the result. P&J Academy tackled AAA’s Ashu Malik to get an important 1 point. Then, the man who looked unstoppable today, Narendra scored a quick raid point to increase the lead to 2. Under pressure AAA was in a do-or die situation where again P&J Academy held their nerves. With the end of extra time, match ended with the score line of 43-48. An unbelievable comeback from P&J Academy in the last 10 minutes of the game made them go through the finals of K7 Kabaddi Stage Up 2021 and play NK Academy in the finals.
Narendra Hoshiyar with the invincible performance was the Player of the match for the 18 raid points. Mohit Jaipal made a major contribution with his all-round performance and Neetu in defence was great.
