Puneri Paltan produced an all-round performance to beat Telugu Titans 34-27 in a Pro Kabaddi League match at the jam-packed Thyagaraj Sports Complex here on Friday. Nitin Tomar (8 points) and Manjeet (9 points) were among points for the Anup Kumar-coached Pune side, despite a record-setting defensive display by the Titans.
The Hyderabad-based team produced seven Super Tackles in the match. Pune dominated the initial minutes of the match, thwarting Siddharth Desai’s raids while Nitin Tomar picked up valuable raid points at the other end.
But Titans’ defender Vishal Bhardwaj, who has made a name for himself as the king of Super Tackles in Season 7, sparked off a series of Super Tackles, ably supported by his teammates Abozar Mighani, C Arun and Amit Kumar, to keep the Telugu Titans in the game.
As it Happened| Pro Kabaddi: Delhi overcomes Patna, Paltan beat Titans
The men in yellow produced 5 two-point tackles in the first half as Vishal Bhardwaj raced to a High 5 (awarded to defenders with five or more tackle points) but the defensive masterclass was not enough to prevent an All-Out in the final minute of the half which ended 17-14 in favour of the Puneri Paltan.
Siddharth Desai was in no mood to let Pune dominate him and started the second half positively, picking four points in his first four raids of the half. Desai also reached a personal milestone of 300 Pro Kabaddi points in the process.
But sadly for Titans, the defenders struggled to replicate their first half form, with Vishal making a mistake on an ankle hold attempt, that allowed Pune’s Manjeet to escape with a 4-point Super Raid four minutes after the restart. The move allowed Pune to open up a seven-point lead which it went on to hold firmly till the very end.
Balasaheb Jadhav, who has certainly been Pune’s find of the season, came in the second half to solidify the defence while Manjeet and Nitin Tomar took care of the raiding duties. Nitin Tomar reached a milestone of 400 Pro Kabaddi points towards latter stages of the match as the Paltan saw out the late challenge from the Titans.
- Delhi beats Patna 38-35 in a very close match -
Dabang Delhi fended off a late challenge from the Patna Pirates to register an exciting 38-35 win in the last game of its home leg. With this victory, Delhi becomes the first team in this year's Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) to come out on top in all its home games (four wins in as many matches).
However, the main talking point of the match involved the lead raiders from both the sides, namely Naveen Kumar and Pardeep Narwal. Delhi's Naveen brought up his ninth consecutive 'Super-10' of the tournament, thereby breaking the record of eight, set by Patna's 'Dubki-King' Pardeep in PKL season 5.
Dabang Delhi has now firmly established its place at the top of the points table with nine wins, one loss, one tie and a mammoth 49 points from 11 games. Meanwhile, quite surprisingly, three-time champion Patna Pirates is languishing at the very bottom of the PKL 2019 table with three wins, eight losses and just 19 points from 11 games.
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