The Telugu Titans will play their final home against U Mumba at the Gachibowli Indoor in Hyderabad on Wednesday. The Titans fought tooth and nail against the Bengaluru Bulls before losing, 28-30 in Tuesday’s encounter. The Rahul Chaudhari led team currently sits sixth and look to turn the performance into results against the strong Mumbai side. Losing two matches in three days was a bitter pill to swallow as they prepare to put a strong show in front of the home fans.
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The former champions U Mumba played an exceptional match against the Bengal Warriors after some erratic performance. With 3 wins and 2 losses, the Mumbai team look set to move to the top of the table for the first time in season 4, by defeating the inexperienced Telugu side. The lacklustre defence of U Mumba came to the party against the Warriors as they hope to repeat the same dominance against the Titans.
Match Prediction
Heading into today’s battle it is evident that the young Telugu team needs to play out of their skin to beat the experienced U Mumba set-up. The Telugu skipper Rahul Chaudhari, who has 30 raid points in three matches, is surely the player to watch out for, in the final home game. The star raider, who had great success against U Mumba in the past matches, faces an intriguing battle against the king of kabaddi, Rakesh Kumar. The promising Nilesh Salunke has to support the skipper in today’s encounter.
The defence of Telugu team never looks settled in the past seasons and the misery continues in season 4. The rusty defence let them down against the Bulls, where the team struggled to handle Rohit Kumar’s strong turns and diving hand touches. Therefore Sandeep Narwal and Sandeep Dhull have to put a stellar show against the attacking force of Anup Kumar and Rishank Devadiga in today’s encounter.
U Mumba, on the other hand, rely a lot on the experienced Anup Kumar and Rakesh Kumar. The fearsome Rishank Devadiga, who has 24 successful raid points in season 4 could trouble the less fancied Telugu defence in the do or die situations. The cool and calm Anup Kumar struggled against Sandeep Narwal in the past, particularly in the finals of season 3, where Sandeep was unstoppable against the U Mumba skipper. It’s interesting to see Anup’s approach in today’s encounter against the former Patna defender.
U Mumba’s defence was at sixes and sevens in the first week of the season but they were solid against the Bengal Warriors. The inclusion of former Puneri Paltan defender Surjeet has added more weight to U Mumba setup. Sunil Kumar, on the left corner, was very slow in dealing with the pacey raiders, and the 27-year-old along with Rakesh Kumar should come good against the athletic Vinoth Kumar and Rahul Chaudhari.
The head to head battle stands 3-2 in favour of Mumbai as they look to extend their lead by defeating the home team. The uninspired defence of Telugu team is highly noted heading into today’s contest.
It’s an interesting battle between the raiders of both teams but the prolific Mumbai team clearly holds the cutting edge over their enemies. Let’s wait and watch whether the youthful Telugu side causes an upset in front of their fans.
Telugu Titans vs U Mumba squads
Telugu Titans
Defenders: Vinod Kumar, Sandeep Dhull,
All-rounders: Jasmer Singh Gulia, Rupesh Tomar, Sandeep Narwal, Mohammad Maghsoudlou, Shashank Wankhede, Aklhaq Hussain, Muhammed Rizwan, Sagar B. Krishna, Vishal Bhardwaj
Raiders: Vinoth Kumar, K.Prapanjan, Nilesh Salunke. Rahul Chaudhary, Sukesh Hegde, Sombir, Athul MS
U Mumba:
Defenders: Jeeva Kumar, Vikas Kale, Sunil Kumar, Manoj Dhull, Surjeet
All-rounder: Rakesh Kumar, Sourav V
Raider: Gurvinder Singh, Mohammed Aruduzzaman Munshi, Suresu Kumar, Surendra Singh, Mohammed Zakir Hussain, Tuhin Tarafder, Anup Kumar, Rishank Devadiga, Nitin Kumar, Vikash Kumar.
Telugu Titans vs Bengal Warriors Live Match Information
Date: 06/07/2016
Time: 21:00 IST
Venue: Gachibowli indoor stadium, Hyderabad.
TV Channel: Star Sports 2 (English), Star Sports 3 (Hindi)
