Pro Kabaddi League: Telugu Titans beat Puneri Paltans 60-24
18th August 2014, Pune: After the euphoric performance of Rahul Chaudhari last night, the crowd was preparing to witness yet another magical show by the superstar Raider. Though Rahul did star in the match, it was the young Titan Deepak Niwas Hooda who, with his 16 raid points helped his team register 59 points the highest of the tournament so far. Putting up a below-par show yet again Pune lost against Vizag 60- 24.
Having turned up in huge numbers to support their Men in Yellow the spectators at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Port Stadium were not just excited but were confident of their team emerging victorious against the Pune Team, who’ve had a rather dismal season in the inaugural edition of the Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League.
After a quiet start to the match, the stand-in captain of the Puneri Paltan Manoj Kumar ousted Rahul Chaudhari by the 5th minute of the match. The happiness of the visiting team was short-lived as Titans’ Deepak Niwas Hooda and Sukesh Hegde made sure that Pune concede its first set of LONA points by the 10th minute. Toothless in their attack, Pune was reduced to a two-man army yet again in a span of just 5 minutes. Rahul Chaudhari completed the formality by defying Nitin More’s tackle and setting the team up for their second set of LONA Points. With Rahul Chaudhari, Sukesh Hegde and Deepak Niwas Hooda breaking the Puneri Paltan apart, the half-time scores were 27-7.
Puneri Paltan got off to a shaky start as Nigerian Simon Kibura slipped on the mat and literally fell out of the game. Fighting against a two-man army Deepak made sure he left only Vikas on Paltan’s side of the court bringing about the third LONA points of the night. After providing one of the most interesting raids of the season Simon Kibura was not able to entertain for long as he fell head on into the trap set out for him by Hooda. Having a night of his own, Deepak picked up his 13th raid points from his 14 raids and helped the Titans increase the lead to 25 points. As Vizag reached their 50th point in the 32nd minute, Pune was still struggling to meet them halfway, posting just 22 points. While one may have thought the match was over Deepak Niwas Hooda powered through a lightning fast raid, enabling Titans to inflict a fourth all-out on Pune. Visibly helpless without their captain Wazir Singh, Puneri Paltan conceded the biggest defeat of the tournament this far by a whole 34 points.