Kabaddi
What happens in tied games in Pro Kabaddi League playoffs - Tie-breaker Explained
One of the rare occurrences, Pro Kabaddi League has seen matches getting tied in playoffs only twice. What happens in such an instance?
Mumbai: In a rare instance, the Tamil Thalaivas and U.P. Yoddhas tied the second eliminator 33-33 in the ongoing Pro Kabaddi League season 9 playoffs at NSCI Dome, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Indoor Stadium here on Tuesday.
During the league stage, if a match is tied both teams share three points each but point sharing is not an option in the knockouts.
In season 7 when U.P. Yoddhas and Bengaluru Bulls tied the eliminator, a 3-minute mini-match was played like super over but now Pro Kabaddi League has come up with a new set of tie-breakers which resemble five penalties.
New PKL Tie-Breaker rules:
- 5 different raiders will raid in a defined order one time each and time doesn't matter for any of the raids.
- Both teams will field 7 players each.
- The team that raids first in the match raids first in the tie-breaker.
- The white Baulk line becomes the Baulk + Bonus line for the tie-breaker.
- There will be no ALL-OUT or Revivals. Only the points scored will be counted.
- No raider can repeat, they will raid in a definite order.
Thriller in PKL Playoffs
Tamil Thalaivas created history by winning the tie-breaker by 6-4 and qualified for the Pro Kabaddi League 2022 playoffs for the first time ever.
A close first half kicked off with the Thalaivas becoming the first team that won the toss and chose to raid this season.
It seemed the decision came with a gameplan as they raced into a 4-0 lead, Narender's raids brilliantly complemented by a tight defence. The raider continued to be a menace through the half constantly registering touchpoints to keep the Yoddhas depleted.
For the Yoddhas, the duo of Pardeep Narwal and Surender Gill suffered, registering a mere five points between them through the half. The Thalaivas went into the break leading 16-14.
The Thalaivas kicked off the second half inflicting a first ALL-OUT on the Yoddhas to surge into a 19-15 lead.
With three minutes to go, Pardeep Narwal came alive, taking out M Himanshu and Abishek to leave the Thalaivas on the brink of an all-out. Pardeep Narwal came up with a super raid at the last minute to give U.P. Yoddhas the lead.
With the game being a rollercoaster, Tamil Thalaivas won a point in the last 15 seconds to force the tie-breaker.
The Thalaivas edged a tense back-and-forth tiebreaker 6-4 to take the game and set up a Semi-Final clash against Puneri Paltan on Thursday.
