Pro Kabaddi: Telugu Titans stage a strong comeback to make Bengaluru Bulls share the spoils

TELUGU TITANS displayed a much-needed fighting spirit to hold Bengaluru Bulls to a 21-21 tie at the Mankapur Indoor Complex at Nagpur. It was Bengaluru’s third home game when they were denied a win.

Both teams entered the match with a sole aim of getting back to winning ways. While Bulls had lost their last two games, Titans had suffered five successive defeats. Following an empty raid each from Rahul Chaudhari and Ajay Kumar, Nilesh Salunke opened Titans’ account for the evening. It looked like an even contest as scores remained 5-5 after 12 minutes into the game. 

In the 16th minute, Rahul Chaudhari dogged past Ravinder Pahal’s double ankle hold to escape with a point. The raid saw an injury scare as the Bulls veteran defender had to resort to an ice-pack while the Poster Boy continued using a spray. The first half ended in 9-8 in Bengaluru Bulls’ favor after a TV umpire confirmed an unsuccessful review from the visitors.

Early into the second half, Ravinder Pahal executed an impressive tackle to inflict first All-Out on Titans. The All-Out forced Telugu to bring in Rakshith and Mohsen Maghsoudlou in order to strengthen their attack. Following a series of do-or-die raids, Bengaluru earned a five-point lead at 20-15. 

The Telugu fans were in for a treat as Rakshith raided successfully to score a two-point raid, just two minutes before the final whistle, to make scores 20-17. Subsequently, Rohit Kumar was denied a do-or-die raid point and was closely followed by a two-point raid from Rahul Chaudhari. The match ended tied at 21-21 with both teams picking up a point each in the final raids.

Bengaluru Bulls starting 7:

All Rounder: Preetam Chhillar 
All Rounder: Ashish Kumar
Defender: Mahender Singh
Raider: Ajay Kumar
Raider: Rohit Kumar
Defender: Ravinder Pahal
Defender: Sachin Kumar 

Substitutes:

All Rounder: Sanjay Shreshta
Raider: Harish Naik  
Defender: Pardeep Kandola 
Defender: Amit Sheoran
Raider: Sumit Singh 

Telugu Titans starting 7:

Raider: Rahul Chaudhari
Defender: Rohit Rana
Defender: Vinod Kumar 
Raider: Vikas
Raider: Nilesh Salunke
All Rounder: Rakesh Kumar
All Rounder: Vishal Bhardwaj

Substitutes:

Defender: Farhad Milaghardan
Raider: Mohsen Maghsoudlou 
Defender: Vinoth Kumar
Raider: Rakshith 
Raider: Munish

Le Panga:

Rahul Chaudhari: The Poster of Kabaddi rose to the occasion when his team needed him the most. Rahul scored swift touch and bonus points to inflict an All-Out and reduce the deficit in the final minutes of the game. He made 20 raid attempts and scored 8 points from them. 

No Panga:

Ajay Kumar: It was a disappointing night for the young raider as he took home no points in this game. The ‘Emerging player of Season 4’ had picked a total of 18 points in his previous 4 games, however, made two unsuccessful raids and an unsuccessful tackle against the Titans. Ajay made very few raid attempts and had to be subbed with Harish Naik in the dying minutes of the game. 
 

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