Welcome to Sportstar's coverage of the Pro Kabaddi League. This is Shyam Vasudevan and I will be taking you through today's PKL 8 match between Bengaluru Bulls and Telugu Titans.
We head into our final game of the evening as Dabang Delhi locks horns with Tamil Thalaivas. Join my colleague Nihit Sachdeva on the blog here -
Meanwhile, you can also check out our Kings of Kabaddi series from PKL 7 - a happier time pre-COVID when we got to physically sit down with some of the biggest names in the league and hear their stories. You can check out all episodes here:
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Rohit Kumar, who has just one point all season, surprisingly chose himself to go on the last raid. It seemed like he wanted to make a statement of sorts against his former team but wasn't able to deliver the goods as Pawan Sehrawat pulled him away with a fine tackle and the game ends tied at 34-34. Telugu Titans is yet to win a game in PKL 8!
One strange decision changed the outcome of this match and the Telugu Titans will have to go back to the drawing board and revisit their strategies for the coming matches. Ankit Beniwal was impressive with a Super 10 while Adarsh, a traditional left corner, did remarkably well to bag five raid points.
Bengaluru Bulls will be happy to share the spoils here but will also need to pull up their socks as they looked off-colour for large parts of the game. The raiding duo of Pawan and Chandran bagged eight and nine points respectively but were far from their best, while the defence was caught off-guard far too often.
34-34 IT IS A TIE! Rohit Kumar, the Telugu Titans captain who has only ONE point this season, goes into the last raid with his side sitting on a one-point lead and all he has to do is make it a legal raid. He goes after Pawan and the Bengaluru Bulls captain latches onto his arm and pulls him away. That's massive from Pawan!
33-34 Pawan is back and get skips past Surinder's tackle. Surinder elbows Pawan on the face and he gets a yellow card. He's been suspended for two minutes.
32-34 Mahender offers Bengaluru Bulls a ray of hope as he traps Ankit.
31-34 Chandran, why!?! He just had to pick up a bonus because he would have had another raid coming up but he heads deep into the Titans half and gets caught out.
31-33 Pawan's miserable game continues as Surinder plasters him to the mat.
"To me, a tied game means nothing. Go for the win," says the Bengaluru Bulls coach Randhir Sehrawat.
31-32 ALL OUT! Chandran runs into traffic and Sandeep holds him back with a monstrous block. Telugu Titans are ahead with two points to go.
"Stay calm and play, don't rush it. Get the All Out," says Telugu Tians coach Jagdish.
30-29 Rohit Kumar has his first point of the season and Bengaluru Bulls are reduced to just one man - Chandran.
30-28 Chandran has cleverly picked up two bonus points in as many raids.
29-28 Adarsh, a defender by nature, excels with another raid as he gets the better of Saurabh.
28-27 Bengaluru Bulls do the unthinkable! Ankit Beniwal is undone by the two Bengaluru Bulls players as Saurabh traps him with a thigh hold and Chandran does very well to pull him away from the mid-line.
Pawan seems to have completely lost the plot here. He came on just a minute ago and makes a rather unnecessary tackle on Adarsh. He had no business tackling there! It's of little surprise that Pawan has been on the bench for almost half of this game.
25-27 SUPER RAID! Telugu Titans' left corner Adarsh comes up with a magnificent raid as he evades the two-man defensive chain and gets a touch on Pawan. He picks up three huge points and the Titans are ahead!
25-24 Pawan is back on the mat and picks up a bonus point.
24-24 The Bengaluru Bulls defence makes no mistake this time as Saurabh executes a perfect upper body hold on Ankit.
Another empty raid for Rohit Kumar....
23-24 Lee nearly got his man! He nearly powers himself out of Ruturaj's ankle hold but the Telugu Titans defence swoops in to deny him.
22-23 SUPER 10 for Ankit Beniwal! He tricks Amit on the right and bags a well-deserved Super 10.
22-22 The super-sub Adarsh, who was with Bengal Warriors earlier, times his ankle hold to perfection to relegate Pawan to the bench.
22-21 Pawan strikes, at last! He slips out of Rohit Kumar's ankle hold and gets past Surinder as well to bag two points.
20-21 Sandeep goes in on a pursuit raid and does not realise it's a do-or-die raid. He's ushered off the mat and Pawan is back on the mat.
Bengaluru Bulls has brought on South Korea's Dong Geon Lee. He'd led Bengaluru Bulls to a thrilling win last time around with a stunning Super Raid at the death.
19-21 Chandran has been bundled out and Bengaluru Bulls does not have a raider on the mat. Great tackle from Rohit Kumar there.
Ankit Beniwal has rose to the occasion today. He's done extremely well and has been the Telugu Titans' best player of the evening without a doubt.
18-20 Ankit Beniwal gets rid of Pawan and Mayur! The Bengaluru Bulls' captain's miserable evening continues...
17-18 Rakesh Gowda is flattened by the Bengaluru Bulls defence but he seems to have hurt himself in the prorcess. He gingerly jogs off the mat.
16-18 ALL OUT! Pawan is tackled by Sandeep and Telugu Titans has taken the lead.
15-15 Superb from Ankit! He gets rid of two defenders and the Bengaluru Bulls are down to just one man.
Rohit Kumar made the switch to Telugu Titans from Bengaluru Bulls this season. Rohit's a massive fan of Bollywoord actor Akshay Kumar and even has a tattoo of him on his arm! More on that here -
HALF-TIME! Bengaluru Bulls holds on to a slender two-point lead at the break. Bengaluru Bulls have not done anything extra-ordinary but the defence has stepped up when it matters. A big worry though would be the fact that Pawan Kumar Sehrawat has been off the mat for 15 minutes and 19 seconds of the 20 minutes played in the first half. The Telugu Titans has problems of its own as Siddharth Desai isn't playing today and Rohit Kumar hasn't managed to score a single point yet.
14-12 SUPER TACKLE! It's a really poor raid from the Telugu Titans captain Rohit and he's taken apart by the combination of Mahender and GB More.
11-11 It's a do-or-die raid and Chandran has been hammered to the mat. Sandeep Kandola picks up the tackle point.
Pawan has spent nearly 12 minutes off the court already. Not a good sign for Bengaluru Bulls.
11-10 Rakesh delivers on the do-or-die raid as he gets a touch on Amit with a vicious kick.
11-9 Chandran capitalises on Surender's poorly-timed ankle hold and escapes to safety.
9-9 SUPER TACKLE! Amit Sheoran comes off the bench and makes an instant impact to tackle Ankit.
6-9 A very strange tactic from Bengaluru Bulls sees Pawan return to the mat. Pawan, the side's ace raider, has been left alone with the two other players form a chain and Ankit coolly gets a touch on Pawan.
6-8 Pawan is finally off the mark - bags his first raid point.
5-8 Superb stuff from Rakesh Gowda! He wriggles out of Mahender's ankle hold and streaks past Mayur's dash to pick up two points.
4-6 Aman makes a hasty challenge and Ankit gets the better of him. Rohit had told him that the dive would could and Ankit made the most of that piece of advice.
4-5 Pawan's off the mat yet again and he's yet to score a point today in three raids. He's been tackled twice.
4-4 That's simply brilliant from Saurabh Nandal. He nearly steps off-court but does well to regain his balance and then throws himself at Ankit to deny him any scoring opportunity.
Rohit Kumar will be Telugu Titan's lead raider today in Siddharth Desai's absence. Rohit is yet to score a point in PKL 8.
2-4 Pawan goes for the do-or-die raid....and he's tackled. No luck here yet for the Bengaluru Bulls capain.
2-3 Ankit Beniwal delivers! He skips past Mayur's dash and gives his side the early lead.
2-2 Bengaluru Bulls' left corner Aman does extremely well to grab on to Rakesh's ankle.
1-1 Chandran Ranjit scores right away, gets a toe touch on Ruturaj and that will revive Pawan.
0-1 Pawan heads in for the first raid and he's taken out!
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The live action between Bengaluru Bulls and Telugu Titans will begin shortly. Meanwhile, the first match of the day between U Mumba and UP Yoddha has just ended in a 28-28 tie. Check our live coverage here:
No Siddharth Desai for the Titans today. That's a shocker!
8:25pm: LINE UPS!
Bengaluru Bulls: Pawan Sehrawat (c), Mayur Kadam, Mahender Singh, Bharat, Chandran Ranjit, Saurabh Nandal, Aman
Telugu Titans: Rohit Kumar (c), Surinder Singh, Manish, Rakesh Gowda, Ankit Beniwal, Ruturaj Koravi, Sandeep Kandola
8:20pm: It is going to be a tough task for Titans to stop Bengaluru Bulls which is on a three-match winning streak. In its last game, Bulls' Pawan Sehrawat had scored 22 points in the 42-28 win over Haryana Steelers. Titans in their previous match had lost to the same team 37-39.
8:15pm: Head-to-Head stats - Bengaluru Bulls and Telugu Titans have played against each other 17 times in Pro Kabaddi League. Bulls has come out on top 11 times while Titans has won just three. The remaining three games have been ties.
8:10pm:
If you're new to the PKL caravan and are wondering what super raids, super tackles, bonus points, do or die raids are, we have you covered.
8:05pm: It is Bengaluru Bulls vs Telugu Titans. Pawan Sehrawat vs Siddharth Desai.
8pm: Good evening. Wishing you a very happy new year. It's day 11 of the PKL and as we speak, an interesting match is on between U Mumba and UP Yoddha. Check out our live coverage:
Before we introduce you to the fixtures of the day, here's a look at the results from the last three days -
December 31:
December 30:
December 29:
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