Best Defender of the Match – Joginder Narwal (Puneri Paltan)
Best Raider of the Match – Rahul Chaudhari (Telugu Titans)
FULL TIME Puneri Paltan 35 – 40 Telugu Titans
40’ Puneri Paltan 35 – 40 Telugu Titans - Some drama here as both teams get a point but lose a player each as well. Sandeep Narwal goes out and so does Ajay Thakur. Rahul Chaudhari takes his tally on the night to 18 and he has single handedly taken the lead down to one point. PHENOMENAL from Rahul. Deepak Niwas Hooda with a do or die raid and it is a SUPER RAID. What an amazing raid. He has taken Rahul Chaudhari off and stolen the game from the Titans. FULL TIME!!!!!! PUNERI PALTAN win
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38’ Puneri Paltan 35 – 32 Telugu Titans - Whom do you turn to when you need to reduce the opponent’s lead? Rahul Chaudhari. He brings it down to three points by taking a touch point. Ajay Thakur’s empty raid is followed by PURSUIT. Rahul Chaudhari YOU BEAUTY. He has 16 points on the night and with just under three minutes remaining, his team is still trailing by three points. Deepak Niwas Hooda, using all his experience, runs down the clock. TIMEOUT
36’ Puneri Paltan 34 – 30 Telugu Titans - Telugu Titans have a small lead to protect here and they need to be alert. Puneri Paltan pull one more back through Ajay Thakur and then Somvir Shekhar takes down Salunke to draw his team level. DEEPAK NIWAS HOODA puts his team in the lead and Telugu Titans are staring at another ALL OUT! TIMEOUT Telugu Titans go into the lead but Puneri Paltan draw level again. Deepak does it again. ALL OUT
32’ Puneri Paltan 26 – 29 Telugu Titans - Puneri Paltan are not willing to go down easily and they have reduced the lead to just three points. Deepak Niwas Hooda is doing the bulk of the raiding for the Puneri Paltan and has been good. Rahul comes on for a do or die raid and DELIVERS again. He has now scored 13 points on the night. His point, though, is cancelled out by Ajay Thakur.
29’ Puneri Paltan 24 – 28 Telugu Titans - ALL OUT!!! Rahul Chaudhari has carried his team on his shoulders to inspire a stellar comeback. Puneri Paltan are dismissed again and the lead is five points for the Telugu Titans. The home team lose a review and then Sandeep Narwal gives away a point to Deepak Hooda. Nilesh Salunke is then taken down by Joginder Narwal. Telugu follow suit and bring down Nitin Tomar.
26’ Puneri Paltan 23 – 22 Telugu Titans - Rahul Chaudhari seems to be coming into his own here and claims to have got the touch with his shoe. Reviews the call and it is SUCCESSFUL. Telugu Titans are in the lead now and the make it two points by taking down Deepak Niwas Hooda. Vishal Bharadwaj coming to the party. Rahul reduces them to two men by taking one more man. SUPER 10 for him. He is amazing. Ajay Thakur comes on and gets the bonus. Rahul raids again with two men and the inevitable happens. Joginder Narwal gets a point and they survive
23’ Puneri Paltan 19 – 19 Telugu Titans – The second half begins with an ALL OUT for Puneri Paltan and Telugu Titans are LEVEL. The slate has been wiped clean and there is no need for any team to remember what happened in the first half. Puneri Paltan go ahead by two points but the Titans immediately draw level. Or have they? Review and TIMEOUT called. YES. LEVELS
This has been a good comeback by Telugu Titans after starting off the game in a rather bleak manner. Deepak Niwas Hooda and Rahul Chaudhari have been stellar on the night, raiding really well. We will be back with the second half shortly. Stay tuned
HALF TIME Puneri Paltan 17 – 14 Telugu Titans
20’ Puneri Paltan 17 – 14 Telugu Titans - Telugu Titans have got a fresh lease of life due to that error from Puneri Paltan and they can take initiative here by getting some points in. THEY DO! Mahalingam takes down Nitin Tomar on the do or die raid and Puneri Paltan are down to three men with Rahul Chaudhari raiding. He gets a point as well. Deepak does not do anything stupid and gets the bonus. Rahul raids and shoots one more man down. Deepak is the last man standing. HALF TIME
18’ Puneri Paltan 16 – 11 Telugu Titans - Rahul Chaudhari is taken off the mat by a ferocious Joginder Narwal block and he takes his team to a lead of seven points but Telugu Titans fight back by getting a tackle in place. Sandeep Narwal raids and he is not able to escape the Puneri Paltan defence. The away team is running away with it here and Deepak Niwas Hooda has led from the front. Wait, Athul raids and there is confusion. Some defenders seem to have gone into the lobby. Review by Puneri Paltan. Crucial. UNSUCCESSFUL. Titans get three points but raider is out as well.
15’ Puneri Paltan 13 – 7 Telugu Titans - Puneri Paltan are keeping the Titans at bay and making use of the absence of Jasmer Singh Gulia and Sandeep Dhull. Nitin Tomar gets one more point to take Pune’s lead to five points and then Somvir comes in with a fabulous block on Nilesh to put the away team six ahead. Rahul attacks with his hand and shoulder strapped. He is unable to get a point.
12’ Puneri Paltan 11 – 7 Telugu Titans - SUPER RAID by SUPERMAN Rahul Chaudhari!! He reviews the call by the referee and it is SUCCESSFUL. Telugu Titans have now reduced the game to just four points. Rahul Chaudhari, yet again, has brough his team back into the game. Puneri Paltan are down to four men and it is a do or die raid for Deepak Niwas Hooda and he gets the point. Rahul’s magic rubs off and Nilesh Salunke gets a point too
9’ Puneri Paltan 10 – 5 Telugu Titans - Telugu Titans have looked pretty off tonight and do not seem to have the zeal they have shown during the course of the season. Sandeep Narwal picks a point for the home side but Deepak Niwas Hooda produces another superb raid to take his team’s lead to four points. It is up to Rahul Chaudhari again and he gets 500 points by getting a bonus. That is marred by Deepak, who condemns them to an ALL OUT!!!!
6’ Puneri Paltan 4 – 1 Telugu Titans - We should remember that Rahul Chaudhari is just one point away from achieving 500 points in the history of Pro Kabaddi. Just as we say that, Puneri Paltans take their lead to three points as Deepak Niwas Hooda produces an excellent raid to reduce them to three men. Rahul Chaudhari now comes on for the Titans but goes back empty handed.
3’ Puneri Paltan 2 – 1 Telugu Titans – The game starts off with Ajay Thakur raiding for Puneri Paltan and he begins with a customary empty raid. Rahul Chaudhari follows suit and decides not to take any risk. Another empty raid brings on Nilesh Salunke and he is tackled down by Joginder Narwal, who grabs on to his ankle. Nitin Tomar comes on for a do or die raid to put Puneri Paltan in the lead.
LET’S GO!!!
This is a rather new looking Puneri Paltan line-up with Ravinder Kumar, Parmod Narwal and Somvir Shekhar all starting for the team from Maharashtra. Telugu Titans, on the other hand, start with Rahul Chaudhari, Sandeep Narwal, Nilesh Salunke, Rupesh Tomar and Sagar Krishna. Both teams looking new, which makes for an interesting game. We are about to go!!
What a start we have had to the night here in Hyderabad. If the the Women’s Kabaddi Challenge final is anything to go by, we are in for a treat tonight. Puneri Paltan will take on Telugu Titans next. Stay tuned
In case you have not been watching, we have seen an epic thriller in the final of Women’s Kabaddi Challenge and the Storm Queens have defeated Fire Birds 24-23 to wn the inaugural title and create history. Congratulations to them and this is a big day for Indian kabaddi. What a match it has been.
Big news coming in there as Puneri Paltan will be without Manjeet Chhillar and Ravinder Pahal. This is a big blow for the team from Maharashtra and I am not too sure how they will cope up against a strong Telugu Titans line-up.
Correct analysis by expert Sunil Taneja and he makes a valid point. Both teams will need to shrugg off their disappointments and put on a show for the audience. Also, they would also want to show how strong they are as teams.
Catch the live commentary of this game in Hindi here
Good evening friends and welcome to this big night of kabaddi from the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium in Hyderabad. We are on the last day of Pro Kabaddi 2016 Season 4 and this is the live coverage of the third place playoff between losing semi-finalists Puneri Paltan and Telugu Titans. This contest is sandwiched between two epic finals – Women’s Kabaddi Challenge and Pro Kabaddi Season 4.
Talking about the game at hand, a dejected Puneri Paltan side will be up against a wounded Telugu Titans team, which will be led by Rahul Chaudhari, who has been the best raider in the tournament’s history. Puneri Paltan, on the other hand, are not far behind and have some amazing players in their ranks, such as Deepak Niwas Hooda, Manjeet Chhillar and Ajay Thakur.
Not a lot has been wrong with Telugu Titans in Pro Kabaddi 2016 Season 4 and they have played exceptionally well throughout the campaign. No team has a better score difference than them, which shows how prolific they have been, be it in attack or defence. Perhaps the lack of experience or big stage fright did them in against a Jaipur Pink Panthers side that comprised players having nerves of steel.
The home team, once again, will be led by the bruised warrior and undisputed king of raiding Rahul Chaudhari, who is second to no one as far as raiding points are concerned in Pro Kabaddi 2016 Season 4. He has sometimes been left stranded alone in games without any support but has delivered more often than not. He has scored 499 total points in his Pro Kabaddi League career and will surely touch 500 tonight.
Though this game will not mean much to them, the Titans would still need to play their best kabaddi if they want to beat Puneri Paltan and finish third. Sandeep Narwal and Sandeep Dhull will be required to keep an eye on Deepak Niwas Hooda, who is also in red hot form this season. Sukesh Hegde and Nilesh Salunke should support Rahul Chaudhari, who still seems to be carrying a shoulder injury.
Puneri Paltan will not be too disappointed about how their campaign has gone though missing out on the final always hurts. However, they were up against an exceptional Patna Pirates side, which was too good to not reach the final. Puneri Paltan’s campaign stuttered mid-way during the tournament but they bounced back after captain Manjeet Chhillar’s return and managed to make it to the top four.
Deepak Niwas Hooda, not surprisingly, will hold the key for Puneri Paltan in attack while Manjeet Chhillar is going to be the one guarding against the dangerous Rahul Chaudhari. There is no news yet about Ravinder Pahal playing or not but from what it looks like, the defender might sit this one out and will be replaced by Somvir Shekhar, who is not a bad replacement at all.
KEY TALKING POINTS
Telugu TitansAfter a humiliating defeat in the semi-final against Jaipur Pink Panthers, Titans will look to grab the 3rd Spot and finish this season with a win. Against Jaipur, Rahul's plan of raiding from the right side backfired. They've already a quality right side raider in Nilesh Salunke. Tonight Rahul should raid from the left side and target Pune's main defender Manjeet Chillar who will be challenging him at the Left Cover position.
Puneri Paltan
In the semi-final clash against the Patna Pirates, they were missing their regular right corner, Ravinder Pahal. Manjeet and Deepak both performed quite well, but that was not enough to take down the defending champions. Tonight, their left raiders Deepak and Nitin will have to target Sandeep Narwal on the right corner. Sandeep has been struggling against the left raiders throughout this season including the semi-final match against Jaipur where he hasn't got a single point in defense.
