Pro Kabaddi League 2018: Puneri Paltan inflict damaging loss on Telugu Titans; Bengal Warriors begin home leg with win

Kolkata: Puneri Paltan ended their campaign with a thumping win as they beat Telugu Titans 35-20 in the Pro Kabaddi League encounter in Kolkata on Friday. GB More led the raiding charge for Pune with 10 points while Ravi Kumar and Girish Ernak did the damage in defence. Rahul Chaudhari had a disappointing game for Telugu Titans and scored just one point from 12 raids. The defeat dented Telugu Titans’ hopes of making the playoffs who need a miracle to make the cut. [caption id=“attachment_5773451” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Puneri Paltan ended their campaign on a positive note with victory over Telugu Titans. Image Courtesy: PKL[/caption] More scored two raid points in two minutes as Telugu Titans led 2-1. The Titans were struggling to get points on board early in the match and trailed 2-7 after seven minutes. Puneri Paltan then inflicted an all out to lead 10-2. With Rahul Chaudhari and Nilesh Salunke not putting points on board, it looked like an uphill struggle for Telugu Titans as they trailed 3-11 after 10 minutes. Telugu Titans then scored four consecutive points as they reduced the gap to 4 points after 13 minutes. A super tackle in the 15th minute restored the advantage for Puneri Paltan. At the end of the first half, Puneri Paltan led 17-10 The second half followed the same pattern as the first with Chaudhari trying hard to revive Titans but Pune defence did a fine job on him. Farhad Milaghardan made a two-point in the 26th minute as Titans reduced the deficit to six points. Puneri Paltan in the next six minutes scored 6 straight points to stretch the lead to 26-14. Puneri Paltan managed the game quite effectively as they put the pressure on Titans to make do-or-die raids. With less than four minutes to go Puneri Paltan were on course to a comfortable win. Pune inflicted an all out in the 39th minute as they wrapped up a comfortable win in the end. Warriors make winning start to home leg Bengal Warriors started their home leg with a bang, defeating Tamil Thalaivas 27-24 in the opening clash of the Kolkata leg. Incidentally, this was the 500th match in the history of PKL. Jang Kun Lee was the star performer for Bengal Warriors and top scored with 12 points. Ran Singh marshaled the defence for the Warriors and scored 4 tackle points. Sukesh Hegde top scored for the Thalaivas with nine points and was ably supported by Ajay Thakur. In the absence of Manjeet Chhillar, Bengal Warriors’ defence couldn’t contain Bengal raiders and scored just six tackle points. While Bengal Warriors remain in contention for place in the playoffs, Tamil Thalaivas were knocked out earlier. With inputs from PTI