Pro Kabaddi League: Telugu Titans ruin Pune's party
12th August, 2014, Pune: After sixteen days of spectacular action, the Kabaddi juggernaut hit the city of Pune, its fifth destination. Despite languishing at the bottom of the table, the Puneri Paltans were welcomed in style by their home crowd who turned up in huge numbers to cheer for their home heroes at the decked-up Balewadi Sports Complex.
Facing the resilient Telegu Titans in their first outing, Wazir Singh's men looked confident despite their form in the tournament which had left a lot to be desired. On the other hand, the men in yellow seemed ready to get back to form after a 20-point defeat in the hands of the Jaipur Pink Panthers. A clash for salvation, the match was bound to be a mouth-watering contest. However, after 40 minutes of powerful struggle, it was the Telegu Titans who turned all odds in their favour and won the match 42-36.
Starting with a couple of empty raids, the Telugu Titans decided to get a head-start and surge ahead, one point at a time. But the valiant Wazir Singh had other plans, coming fresh out of an injury, the captain led from the front. Earning the first successful raid, the captain made sure that the Paltans fought hard, keeping the score difference as low as possible. After another interval of empty raids, Pune broke the monotony by taking down Titans' powerhouse Rahul Choudhari, but the wounded Titans fought back, ousting Wazir Singh in his very next raid.
The erupting crowd seemed to have breathed new life into the home team as it soon reduced the Titans to a one man team, leaving Chandran Ranjit to take over the Paltan on his own. Consequently, the Paltans scored their first LONA points. But keeping true to the neck-and-neck spirit of the game, the Telegu Titans also registered their first LONA points soon after. At half-time the score read 18- 19 in favour of the Telugu Titans.
As the second half began, it seemed an encore of the first as it continued to be a neck-to-neck battle. Comeback king Praveen Niwale soon took out two Titans players on his own, but the men in yellow returned the favour by ousting Pune's Sagar Khatale and Manoj Kumar. The counter attack continued as Wazir Singh took down two Titans after a heated tackle. Again reduced to just one player, Telegu Titan's Sukhesh Hegde fought valiantly, not only denying Pune another set of LONA points, but also taking down three of Pune's players.
In the 39th minute, the otherwise emphatic home crowd was silenced as the Telegu Titans scored their second LONA, taking the final score to 42-36, dampening Pune's euphoric homecoming.