After astonishing fans with a win over defending champions Patna on their home turf, Dabang Delhi suffered another defeat, their 4th in the tournament, against Telugu Titans on Sunday Night. Delhi were done in by some bad luck and poor defending as the Telugu Titans won by a 5 point margin in the 27th match of Star Sports Pro Kabaddi Season 4. Delhi coach Sagar Bandekar rued the loss but expressed the team’s helplessness in the wake of injuries to some of its major players. The defeat must have been hugely disappointing to the team especially after their win against Patna Pirates the previous night, who were enjoying an unbeaten 5 match winning streak before the match. The Pirates also went on to lose against the Jaipur Pink Panthers to hurtle to their second consecutive defeat.
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The Titans registered their third win of the tournament but still remain 6th on the table behind the Bengaluru Bulls who have one point more than them. Nilesh Salunkhe, who hasn’t been a regular feature of the side this season, delivered the goods for the team. Rahul Chaudhari, even though not his raging best, played a good supporting role with 5 raid points. The Titans have now strung together a couple of wins and would look to add more to the streak.
But the Titans coach would know it well that the team would require to perform much better than this in the second half of the tournament if they want to keep their chances of making the semis alive. On the other side, Delhi’s chances for the same are dimming fast as they’ve failed to find consistency in the first half, leaving them with a mountain to climb in the second half. Kashiling Adake’s loss of form, that eventually led to the team handing captaincy duties to Iranian Meraj Sheykh, has hurt the team badly.
Delhi coach Sagar Bandekar attributed the defeat majorly to the injuries that have plagued the team in the press conference. He said, “Our two main corner players were injured due to which our defence wasn’t at its strongest. Meraj who was already injured got injured again for us, sadly. He added, “So, now we have a four days time before the matches in Bangalore begin, so will try to get the team in form again.”
Telugu Titan's Defender Sandeep Narwal was clearly the happier man when he showed up for the press conference. When asked how did he feel about playing in Patna, where he won last year as a Patna Pirate, he answered by saying, “It was good, I didn't feel any difference, I was loved then and I was loved today as well, I did have my fans cheering for me. It was even better because we ended up winning.”
The Titans will take on Bengaluru Bulls next and would try to leap into the top four of the table which had been dominated by Jaipur, U Mumba, Puneri Paltan and Patna Pirates in the first half.
