Welcome to Sportstar's coverage of the Pro Kabaddi League. This is Nihit Sachdeva and I will be taking you through today's PKL 8 match between Telugu Titans and Dabang Delhi K.C.
We head into the day's third game as Gujarat Giants takes on Tamil Thalaivas! Join me on the blog here - Pro Kabaddi PKL 8 LIVE: Tamil Thalaivas vs Gujarat Giants
Summary: A collective effort from Dabang Delhi K.C. helped it beat Telugu Titans 40-32. With the second-place finish already confirmed, Delhi was relaxed on the mat and gave its youngsters a chance to experience the limelight. The likes of Neeraj Narwal and Manjeet had a great outing and ensured the Titans never really had a chance to cause an upset. Titans’ disappointing season came to an end with just one win in 22 matches. Ankit Beniwal scored 10 points for the Titans which will now need to rebuild the squad in the summer.
32-40: Final raid of the match and Ankit wins one more touch point courtesy of a mistake in defense from Mohammad Malak.
31-40: Ankit does in in defense too. Perfect ankle hold and Nitin Panwar is not getting out of it in years.
30-40: Ankit Beniwal gets the touch point provided by a mad block attempted by Sandeep.
29-40: Brutal thigh hold by Balram and he takes down Adarsh T.
29-39: Yet another lovely dubki by Neeraj Narwal to go part the Titans defender.
29-37: Titans trying to comeback here. Decent defending and Nitin Panwar walks back to the bench.
28-37: Another successful raid fror Galla Raju as he picks up a touch point off Sandeep.
27-37: A loose double ankle hold by Neeraj Narwal and no problem in winning the touch point for Galla Raju.
26-35: Substitute raider Nitin Panwar goes in for Delhi, Akash on the right corner goes for his ankle but the raider was already on his way back.
26-34: Ankit Beniwal picks up a bonus and then easily escapes Krishan Dhull's attempted ankle hold as well.
Final strategic time out. Five minutes to go.
24-34: Sublime dubki by Neeraj Narwal to deceive Surinder who came in for the block.
24-33: Ankit Beniwal picks up a bonus.
23-33: ALL OUT!!! C Arun did well to pick up the bonus before being trapped by the Delhi defence.
22-29: Substitute raider Hyunsu Park goes in for the raid and avoids the All Out as no one comes to support Joginder Narwal's ankle hold.
21-29: Excellent raid by Neeraj as he reduces Titans to one with a multi-point raid removing Akash and one other in the process.
21-27: Rajnish picks up a bonus.
First strategic time out. Ten minutes to go.
20-27: SUPER TACKLE!!!! Yet another fabulous ankle hold by Shihas and this time, the victim is Manjeet.
18-27: Galla Raju goes in for the do-or-die raid and picks up a bonus but then substitute defender Krishan Dhull manages to tackle him with ease.
17-26: Running hand touch by Manjeet and Ankit is off.
16-25: SUPER TACKLE!!!! Ashu Malik went in for the raid, Surinder had stepped out of bounds leaving just Shihas and Akash on the mat but a perfect ankle hold by Shihas proved enough to stop Ashu.
14-24: Adarsh T goes in for the do-or-die raid but Delhi is in such form today that he does not even pick a bonus before being brought down.
14-23: Do-or-die raid for Delhi, Ashu goes in and takes the touch point as Rajnish goes for yet another needless tackle.
14-22: Brilliant effort from the entire Delhi defence as it takes down Galla Raju very close to the mid-line.
14-21: Do-or-die raid for Delhi but strangely, Telugu Titans has allowed Vijay to pick an easy bonus.
14-20: Strong thigh hold by Manjeet Chhillar and Ankit Beniwal had no chance of getting out of it.
HALF-TIME: Telugu Titans 14-19 Dabang Delhi K.C.
14-19: Careless mistake. Young Manjeet loses balance and steps out of bounds. Ankit Beniwal did not need to do anything while raiding.
13-19: Combination tackle by Titans and Ashu Malik goes flying off the mat.
12-19: Galla Raju goes in for the raid and does not enough to get a running hand touch on Jeeva.
11-19: And now Ankit's off courtesy off a failed ankle hold attempted on Vijay.
11-18: Excellent toe touch on Joginder by Ankit Beniwal.
10-18: ALL OUT!!! Galla Raju picked up the bonus on offer but then, Delhi's defence mobbed him mercilessly.
9-15: Lovely multi-point raid by Ashu as he jumped over one defender and then went past another's dash to reach the mid-line.
9-13: Rajnish's off day continues. This time, he makes the error in defense and Ashu Malik wins the touch point.
9-12: Ashu Malik went in for the raid and Adarsh T seemed to have executed a brilliant ankle hold but unfortunately, he had stepped out of bounds before that and therefore, Ashu is safe.
9-11: Do-or-die raid for Titans, Adarsh T goes in, takes the bonus at the right corner post which Sandeep goes for the ankle hold but the grip wasn't there and the raider takes the touch point as well.
7-11: Ashu Malik opens his account in the raiding department as Surinder goes for the ankle hold but gets no support and rightly so.
7-10: Ankit Beniwal goes in for the raid, takes a touch off Manjeet Chhillar with a back kick but gets pushed off the mat by Jeeva while returning. Titans lose their review while saying that Ankit had some part of his body inside the lobbies when he got his hand across the mid-line.
7-9: Vijay continues to impress as he takes a touch off Shihas and crosses the mid-line.
7-8: Running back kick by Ankit Beniwal and raider Manjeet too late in retreating at right corner.
6-8: SUPER TACKLE!!! Manjeet Chhillar initiated the tackle on Adarsh who seemed to have avoided that but instead, he went deeper on the mat and the other two Delhi players eventually stopped him.
6-6: Do-or-die raid for Delhi and Vijay skillfully picks up a bonus.
6-5: Titans take the lead as Ankit draws Joginder into ankle hold and then escapes.
5-5: Adarsh T next raider and he returns to his side of the mat with a brilliant touch point courtesy of a back kick on Sandeep.
4-5: One point each. Ankit Beniwal had been pushed off the mat but in the process, Jeeva Kumar too went out of bounds.
3-4: High quality back hold by Muhammed Shihas and young raider Manjeet is flat on the mat.
2-4: Rajnish finally gets to raid but it is an unsuccessful one. Lovely defence by Delhi.
2-3: Do-or-die raid for Delhi, Vijay goes in and picks the bonus but stays in to try and eke out a touch point too. However, Titans defence stays disciplined and with three seconds on the clock, Vijay gets pushed off the mat.
1-2: Do-or-die raid for Titans, Adarsh goes in and Manjeet Chhillar went too quickly for the block. Touch point given.
0-2: Vijay goes for Delhi's first raid and removes Titans' other raider Rajnish with a touch point.
0-1: Ankit Beniwal comes in for the opening raid and Joginder Narwal traps him in the ankle hold on the left corner.
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TOSS - Dabang Delhi K.C. wins the toss and selects left side of the court. Telugu Titans to raid first.
LINE-UPS!!!
Telugu Titans - Rajnish (c), Surinder Singh, C. Arun, Adarsh T, Ankit Beniwal, Akash Choudhary, Muhammed Shihas
Dabang Delhi K.C. - Joginder Narwal (c), Vijay, Jeeva Kumar, Manjeet Chhillar, Manjeet, Ashu Malik, Sandeep Narwal
Update from first match: Bengal Warriors has damaged Puneri Paltan's play-off hopes by beating Anup Kumar's men 43-36. Paltan did well to not lose by more than seven points and take atleast one point from the match which it ideally needed to win. This also means that Delhi is guaranteed a second-place finish and a direct entry to the semifinals.
8:25pm: Head-to-head stats: Matches played - 13, Matches won by Telugu Titans - 8, Matches won by Dabang Delhi - 4, Tied matches - 1, Last meeting - Dabang Delhi won 36-35 when the two sides met earlier this season
8:20pm: Telugu Titans was on the receiving end of a 54-35 trouncing at the hands of the Jaipur Pink Panthers in its previous outing. The Titans have had a torrid campaign, with injuries to key players and close losses keeping them rooted to the bottom of the points table. They have one game to avoid becoming only the second team in PKL history to finish a campaign with only one win. Ironically, it is Dabang Delhi that holds the unfortunate record. The team from the capital finished with only one win in Season 3.
Speaking of Dabang Delhi , it booked its playoff berth with a gritty 26-23 win over the Patna Pirates last night. Naveen Kumar had to be subbed out as his knee injury continued to bother him. In his absence, Vijay stepped up to win the game for his side. Delhi needs only one point to book its berth in the second semifinal and avoid playing in an eliminator. It will want to give its fringe players an opportunity to play but not at the risk of losing its grip on second spot.
8:15pm: In the first match of the evening, Puneri Paltan, in a must-win encounter, leads defending champion Bengal Warriors 29-26 with seven minutes left on the clock. Follow my colleague Shyam Vasudevan's live coverage of this exciting match here: Pro Kabaddi PKL 8 LIVE: Puneri Paltan vs Bengal Warriors; Maninder Singh leads Warriors' comeback
8:05pm: The 2022 edition of the Sportstar Aces Awards is back and we are celebrating the marvellous year for Indian Sports that 2021 was. From Neeraj Chopra and the other Olympic and Paralympic medallists to the Indian cricket team, we have a bunch of nominees who need your vote to win! Click here to VOTE!
8pm: Hello folks and welcome to our second game of the evening in which second-placed Dabang Delhi, which qualified for the play-offs last night, and bottom-placed Telugu Titans face each other! Before we get to that, here's a recap of what went down in the PKL over the last fortnight - PKL notebook: Patna Pirates packs a punch
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