Pro Kabaddi League 2017: Telugu Titans clinch crucial victory; U Mumba win thriller

Mumbai: Telugu Titans registered a much-needed victory, defeating Tamil Thalaivas 33-28 in the fifth Pro Kabaddi League on Thursday. Sombir had a stellar performance in defence and scored 10 points to lead his team to victory. It was the Titans’ defence that scored almost half their points. Both teams were in search of a desperate win after a disappointing campaign so far. [caption id=“attachment_3996053” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Tamil Thalaivas slumped to yet another defeat against Telugu Titans in PKL Season 5. Image Courtesy: PKL’s official website[/caption] Telugu Titans have lost eight games so far whereas Tamil Thalaivas have been defeated four times. Tamil Thalaivas made a strong start and led 3-0 after four minutes as Ajay Thakur and Prapanjan scored raid points. Telugu Titans opened their account in the fifth minute with a tackle point. It was the Titans’ defence which got them points as they levelled the match at 5-5 in the seventh minute. Farhad Milighardan scored Titans’ first raid point as they led 6-5 after eight minutes. It was an evenly fought contest for the next few minutes as both teams exchanged raid and tackle points with Telugu Titans leading 11-9 in the 18th minute. Rahul Chaudhari struggled for Titans but their defence kept them ahead in the match. Telugu Titans went into the break leading 12-10. The second half began with Telugu Titans inflicting an all out in the 23rd minute to lead 17-12. Rahul was kept quiet by the Thalaivas defence. It was 20-14 in favour of Titans as Prapanjan was sent to the bench in 29th minute. Thakur scored with a successful raid in the 33rd minute as Thalaivas cut the lead to just three points. It looked like Titans would run away with the match but Thakur was in good raiding form. Thalaivas scored 10 points in five minute to trail 26-28 in the 37th minute. Thalaivas reduced the deficit to just one point as they trailed 28-29 with two minutes to go. Rahul then scored a crucial raid point in the 39th minute as Titans led 31-28. Two tackle points in the last minute ensured that Titans won 33-28 in the end. Meanwhile in the second match of the day, home team U Mumba took on Jaipur Pink Panthers once again in their home leg. The last time these two met in the NSCI Stadium in Mumbai it was the Pro Kabaddi League Season 1 champions Pink Panthers who had the better off U Mumba winning 39-36. Mumba had a torrid start to their home leg as they lost three matches before the fourth one got washed away. The next match saw Mumba winning their first home match defeating Haryana Steelers and in their last home game on Thursday, they overcame the Jaipur Pink Panthers in a thrilling encounter to win 36-32. In the first half, it was a battle of the raiders as Mumba’s Kashiling Adake and Pink Panthers’ Pawan Kumar kept amassing important raid points. The points scored by the raiders became relevant due to there being no defence points for the major part of the first half. However, after 15 minutes of play, a move by Pink Panthers’ stand-in-captain Jasvir Singh, who is leading the team from the front in the absence of Manjeet Chhillar, enforced a defensive error from the home team to win Jaipur its first all-out. U Mumba, the season 2 champions, were trailing 14-9 with three minutes on the clock in the first half, but brought a major turnaround to go into the break trailing by just one point at 15-16 courtesy captain Anup Kumar ably supported by his raiders including Surinder Singh. Though Pawan managed a Super 10 early in the second half, the home team eked out a lead and followed it with an all-out of their own to go 5 points clear of the Pink Panthers. But, the match was far from over as Jaipur managed to reduce the deficit to just 2 points as Jasvir won an all-out for his team. The tension built up as with less than a minute to go, the visitors levelled scores at 32-32. But, the hero of the day for the home team, Adake scored two points on his raid to get to his Super 10 before Mumbai wrapped up proceedings tackling Jasvir for two more points to finish the match 36-32. The match was also interspersed with a lot of displeasure expressed by both the teams towards the refereeing in this match. Though Pink Panthers’ captain Jasvir brushed aside the refereeing as a part and parcel of the game, Anup Kumar minced no words in lambasting the shoddy refereeing in their match against Jaipur. However, there was no time to ponder as the Kolkata leg of Pro Kabaddi League Season 5 begins on 1 September. With inputs from PTI