Senior National Kabaddi Championships 2017: Tight contests light up mat, Bihar pull off shock win against Tamil Nadu on Day 3 

The final day of the group stage matches in the ongoing 65th Senior National Kabaddi Championships 2017 sprung a few surprises and upsets in a total of thirty-two matches that were contested today - 18 men's games and 14 women's clashes that laid the platform for some thrilling encounters. With the culmination of the group stage matches, the teams will prepare in earnest for the big knockouts stage from the 3rd of January in the lead to the finals which will take place on the 5th of January 2018.

The first round of the day witnessed quite a few lopsided contests with Maharashtra collecting their second win of the competition, a massive 58-20 win against Gujarat which preceded Railways' 45-15 win over Andhra. Uttarakhand picked up from where they left off yesterday with a resounding 51-23 win over Punjab while Jharkhand could not muster up a win against a strong Rajasthan outfit, falling to a 23-45 loss at full-time.

In the next round, Bihar stunned Tamil Nadu with a gigantic effort that saw the team from down south crumble to a 27-39 loss while Himachal Pradesh put in an improved performance following yesterday's loss to register a 44-18 win against a listless BSNL side.

Odisha finally managed to muster a 49-39 victory against Assam after consecutive losses from their previous encounters as Gujarat closed out the round with a convincing 44-37 win over Pondicherry.

As the evening set in, Andhra's inspiring performance saw them overcoming Chhattisgarh's stiff competition to win the humdinger of a contest by a 44-43 margin while Punjab had it easy against a failing Tripura side and won the contest by a big 60-15 margin.

BSNL finally found some luck going in their favour after two losses in a row with a 41-34 win against Manipur before Bihar held their nerves in a tense game to come out on top with a 45-43 win against Chandigarh.

In the penultimate round of the day, a star-studded Haryana outfit made short work of their clash against Assam and converted their huge first-half lead to win 47-26 and maintain an unbeaten record in the competition. Maharashtra too continued their loss-less campaign with another win against Pondicherry, a 48-23 win that will certainly hold them in good stead ahead of the knockouts.

Against Tripura, who endured a woeful run in the competition, Pardeep Narwal's Uttarakhand completed yet another comprehensive victory, a dominating 33-6 victory while Railways' monstrous 46-15 win against Chhattisgarh culminated to the end of that round's clashes.

In the final round of the day, Ajay Thakur's Himachal Pradesh romped home to a 46-33 win against Manipur and a strong performance from the big names in the Tamil Nadu line-up saw them finish with a 44-26 win against Chandigarh in the last game of the round robin stages.

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Here are the final results:

Men's

Railways 45-15 Andhra

Maharashtra 58-20 Gujarat

Punjab 23-51 Uttarakhand

Rajasthan 45-23 Jharkhand

Bihar 39-27 Tamil Nadu

Himachal 44-18 BSNL

Odisha 49-39 Assam

Gujarat 44-37 Pondicherry

Bihar 45-43 Chandigarh

BSNL 41-34 Manipur

Andhra 44-43 Chhattisgarh

Punjab 60-15 Tripura

Haryana 47-26 Assam

Maharashtra 48-23 Pondicherry

Uttarakhand 33-6 Tripura

Chhattisgarh 46-15 Railways

Himachal Pradesh 46-33 Manipur

Tamil Nadu 44-36 Chandigarh

Women's

Andhra 43-14 J&K

Haryana 65-10 Pondicherry

UP 27-25 West Bengal

Maharashtra 64-15 Odisha

Karnataka 20-19 Chandigarh

Kerala 17-13 Punjab

Gujarat 35-11 Uttarakhand

Himachal 39-21 Delhi

MP 54-27 Jharkhand

Telangana 50-23 Assam

Odisha 27-21 Gujarat

Delhi 33-17 Rajasthan

Kerala 27-10 Jharkhand

West Bengal 17-6 Assam