Puneri Paltan edged past Telugu Titans 53-50 in a closely-fought contest in a Pro Kabaddi League match at the Tau Devilal Sports Complex in Panchkula on Thursday.
Manjeet, Sushant Sail led from the front in the raiding department, while skipper Surjeet Singh spearheaded the defence with a 'High-5'.
This was a must-win game for Titans to stay alive in contention for the playoffs but a resurgent Pune spoiled the Hyderabad-based side's party.
ALSO READ- As it happened| Pro Kabaddi: Telugu Titans out of playoffs race after loss to Puneri Paltan
Known for its defensive prowess, Paltan pushed its opposition on the back foot from the onset when Manjeet floored the Titans’ star raider Siddharth Desai with a lethal ankle in the very first minute of the match.
On the other side of the mat, Abozar Mighani and Vishal Bhardwaj's absence clearly hurt the Titans as Sushant Sail and Manjeet picket up raid points at will.
The Pune outfit inflicted the first 'All-Out' in the 6th minute to take a 10-3 lead and the players continued their good work as coach Anup Kumar's men claimed another 'All-Out' in the 14th minute to open up a 14-point gap.
Surjeet registerd his 'High5 ;as the first half ended 31-16 in Pune's favour. This was the best performance by any team in the first half in PKL.
Sushant Sail started the second half with a massive four-point 'Super-Raid' as Paltan dished out another 'All-Out' in the third minute of the second half. The scoreline now read 40-17 and the game looked like done and dusted.
However, Titans was far from giving up and a Rakesh Gowda 'Super-raid' inspired a near-successful comeback for the Titans. Rakesh Gowda had an impressive game and helped his team bag its first 'All-out' of the match.
Farhad Milagardhan was subbed in and his aggressive raiding, including a 'Super-10', ensured Titans was able to inflict the second 'All-out' on the Paltan and bridge a 23-point deficit to just nine points.
Rakesh Gowda's 16 points and 'High-5s' from Aakash Arsul and Krushna Madane proved to be insufficient for the Telugu Titans outfit as Pune clinched a thrilling three-point victory.
The two teams scored a combined 103 points, which is now the record of most points scored in a single Pro Kabaddi League match. The previous best was 101 points when Patna Pirates beat Dabang Delhi 67-34 in the third edition of the league. This was also the first time in the history of PKL that both the teams scored 50 or more points in the same match
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