Pro Kabaddi: Dabang Delhi 45-45 Telugu Titans; Kashiling Adake stars in exciting draw
Dabang Delhi and Telugu Titans were involved in the match of the tournament as they shared the spoils in a 45-45 draw. Kashiling Adake scored a mammoth 24 points, but that was not enough for the Dabangs to end their home campaign with a win as the Titans snatched a draw at the death.
The team from Hyderabad started brilliantly by taking a 3-0 lead after the first 3 raids of the match. Rahul Chaudhari’s successful raid was sandwiched between Rohit Kumar Chaudhary and Kashiling Adake’s failed raids. After a couple of dull minutes, Rohit conjured up 2 points from his raid in the 7th minute to reduce Titan’s 3-point lead to 1 as the scoreline read 4-5 in the favour of the visitors.
With the home side trailing by 1 point, visiting raider Sukesh Hegde scored 4 points in a single raid to put the scoreline at 6-11 in his team’s favour. However, this spectacular raid came at a cost as Sukesh had to be carried off on a stretcher. Selvamani K came up with a super raid for the home side in the subsequent raid when he, too, won 4 points in his raid as he cut the away team’s lead to 1 again.
Delhi took the lead (12-11) for the first time in the match through a Kashiling Adake raid in the 14th minute. The first all out of the match was enforced on the away team when Deepak Nivas Hudda was tackled as the home team led 16-13 with 6 minutes to go in the half.
The team in yellow rallied to level the score at 18 each, but Kashi ensured the home team went into the half-time break leading by 2 points (20-18). Kashiling and Sukesh Hegde top-scored for their respective teams with 6 points a piece.
The Kashiling Adake show
Kashi continued his good run and extended Delhi’s lead to 5 points within the first 3 minutes of the half as the visitors were on the verge of an all out. However, Rahul Chaudhari returned with a super raid to make it a 1-point game (26-25). Meraj Sheykh prevented his team from getting all out twice when he returned successfully from his raids gathering 2 points in each raid as Telugu took a surprise 31-30 lead.
Rohit Kumar reduced Telugu to 1 player, but Rupesh Tomar prevented another all out and revived 2 of his teammates. Kashiling Adake enforced an all out on the Titans after tagging all the remaining 3 Telugu players and establishing a 4-point lead for the home team.
With 6 minutes to go, the match shifted to another gear. Deepak Nivas Hudda started a comeback for the Titans by winning 3 points in his next 2 raids, but it was the Kashiling Adake and Rahul Chaudhari show in the final 4 minutes. Kashi won 8 points for his team in those 4 minutes, while Rahul amassed 6 quick-fire points.
With the home side leading by 1 point (38-37), Rahul Chaudhari got a super raid as the Titans took a 2-point lead. However, Kashi returned the favour by scoring a super raid of his own to restore Dabangs’ lead. Rahul, with 2 points, put the Titans back in the lead with 1 minute to go, but Kashi conjured up another super raid as Dabang Delhi led by 2 points.
However, Deepak Nivas Hudda reduced the deficit to just 1 point (45-44) as Kashiling stepped up for the final raid of the match. The Titans kept a high line, not letting Kashi cross the baulk line and in a controversial end, Kashi claimed to have touched Deepak, but the referees, after a review, decided in favour of the away team. With this unsuccessful review, Dabang Delhi were forced to settle for a 45-45 draw in their final match at home.
Kashiling Adake scored a record 24 points in the match while Rahul Chaudhari was Titans’ top scorer on 13 points. With this draw, Telugu Titans moved to the top spot, while Dabang Delhi reduced the gap to 4th spot to just 5 points. The league now moves to Bengaluru for the penultimate leg.
Man of the match: Kashiling Adake