Telugu Titans continued their merry run in the 4th season of Star Sports Pro Kabaddi as the Rahul Chaudhari-led Titans overcame a sparkling performance from Meraj Sheykh to win their sixth game of the season against Dabang Delhi 36-28.
With this win, Telugu Titans are yet to taste defeat in their last six contests and look the team to beat this season. Dabang Delhi were undone by some mindless use of review as Telugu Titans put on a display of how to judiciously use the reviews to tilt the game in one’s favour.
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The teams started off on a cautious note and it eventually came down to the do or die raids. Both the do or die raids went in favour of the Titans as first Kashiling Adake couldn’t overcome the brilliance of Sandeep Narwal on his raid and then Nilesh Salunkhe got the team points with a successful raid.
The Delhi captain started in style and took off both the men who got Titans point off the mat. What has worked in favor of Dabang Delhi after giving Meraj Sheykh the captaincy is his willingness to take a sizeable number of raids.
The team’s best raiders then accumulated points as both Rahul Chaudhari and Kashiling Adake got off the mark. With both corners on the bench for Titans, Adake had the onus to get some points for his team, but they didn’t come as the man from Sangli settled for an empty raid.
As the season has progressed, Delhi have uncovered some serious young talent and that’s the reason that despite the presence of names like Prashant Chavan and D Suresh, Sanket Chavan and Sachin Shingade have featured regularly in the team’s seven this season.
Both tackled in unison for Dabang Delhi to give a tough time to the highest scorer of Pro Kabaddi – Rahul Chaudhari and his protégé Nilesh Salunkhe.
Yet, Adake’s lukewarm form wasn’t giving the team points in the raiding department that they would have liked and that ensured that despite crawling in the first half, the scoreboard remained in the Titans’ favour, even by just.
But just when it looked like the number 10 from Delhi will have another disappointing night, he brought the team two points to help them level the score in the 18th minute. The next minute, however, saw the men in yellow run amok.
In a matter of 30 seconds, they racked up five points, all thanks to Rahul Chaudhari who with those super raid points climbed to the top of the table of most successful raids this season.
Half Time – Telugu Titans 14 Dabang Delhi 8
The second half couldn’t have started off on a worse note for Delhi. Trailing by 6 points, and with just two men on the court, defender Sanket Chavan sustained an injury while attempting a raid on Chaudhari.
The All Out followed seconds later when Meraj Sheykh was brought down by the Titans’ raiders. Delhi, who had played so well in the first 18 minutes, were now under the pump due to a nine-point lead that the Titans were enjoying.
Rahul Chaudhari got better with every raid in the second half and in the 26th minute, a smart review by Jasmer Singh Gulia saw a tackle point in Delhi’s favour overturned and ended as a super raid for Chaudhari. The Titans captain smashed his head on Prashant Chavan’s jaw during the raid that took him past a super ten and needed some medical attention for it.
This raid took the difference in scores to more than 10 for the first time in the match. Selvamani, with a super raid and Sachin Shingade got some points for Delhi but Delhi needed some magic.
A bandaged Chaudhari then returned to the court and with a comfortable lead in pocket, killed some time on his raids. Selvamani was handed three more points by the Referee in the 34th minute, but once again a judicious use of the review came to the rescue of the Titans as the TV umpire rewarded both teams a point each.
Meraj Sheykh didn’t leave the fans disappointed and gave them the ‘Meraj moment’ of the day when he jumped over the charging defender to give his team two points. Sheykh then produced more sensational action on the mat as he snatched 4 points on his next raid for the team to inflict an all out on the Telugu Titans.
For the first time after the hara-kiri of the 20th minute, Delhi had looked to be in contention.
But there was only so much that the Delhi captain could do on the night in the absence of support from the other raiders of the team and the inevitable couldn’t be averted as the team lost by eight points. Sachin Shingade made an unnecessary tackle attempt on Sukesh Hegde’s buzzer raid to complete Delhi’s miserable night as they went without a single point from the match.
Full Time – Telugu Titans 36- Dabang Delhi -28
