The second match of the night was between Telugu Titans and U Mumba, with the hosts desperately needing a victory to lift their flagging spirits. The team from Mumbai on the other hand made a confident start to their campaign with 16 points from their first five matches.
The Titans scored a valuable 35-30 victory to stem the bleeding and complete their home leg on a positive note. They won two and lost two in their four matches at Hyderabad.
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The Titans remain firmly in the bottom half of the table though having suffered four losses in six matches. The match against Mumbai was certainly their best performance in this season so far and the team will need more of it on the road to revive their flagging fortunes.
Rishank Devadiga, Rakesh Kumar and Anup Kumar are giving stability and strength to U Mumba. The Titans on the other hand have been beset by injuries and loss of confidence.
Rahul Chaudhari has been nursing his right shoulder while Sukesh Hegde has barely been seen in this fourth season, suffering a cut finger and a bad back.
Points were hard to come by for both teams. The Titans ended the first half with a three-point advantage at 12-9. But more importantly there were only three men on the mat for Mumbai as they went into the break.
HT: Telugu Titans 12-9 U Mumba
Right after the break, Rahul Chaudhari’s strained an already injured right shoulder when he rolled to bring a raiding point to the Titans. But the Titans kept their chin up despite Rahul’s substitution, as Nilesh Salunke returned with a two point raid to open an all out opportunity.
The Titans took that and more as they soon reduced the Mumbai team to three men again within the first six minutes of the second half. Their cushion on Mumbai stretched to an impressive twelve points even as a packed stadium threatened to bring the roof down with their vocal cheering of the local team.
At 28-16, coach Uday felt the need to preserve Rahul, who was substituted with Sagar. The flow of points continued unabated when Nilesh made another two point raid that included the elimination of Anup from play.
Titans lead 31-17 when they tackled Rakesh with a brilliantly executed waist hold before the team pounced on the Mumbai captain.
The match took an interesting twist when Vikas Kale, raiding with just two men for company at his end, managed to survive a tackle by Jasmer Singh Dhulia and Shashank Wankhede.
The Titans were down to five men, with Rahul still nursing his shoulder on the bench. The U Mumba deficit was down to 12 points at 31-19 and over nine minutes still remained on the clock.
Prapanjan suffered an ankle hold right in the middle of the court as Mumbai managed to get Anup back on the mat. Down to five men, Jasmer gave the Titans a breather when he sent Suresu Kumar flying off the court with a single handed effort.
It was an end game special that helped the Titans prevent U Mumba from snatching the initiative. The final five minutes have been a weakness for the Titans this season, but Mumbai was trailing by a dozen points at 34-22.
With only 90 seconds remaining, Titans were down to four men with Mumbai at full strength. Mumbai tackled Nilesh off the court before Anup scored two raid points to push the Titans closer to an all out.
It was a smart effort by Mumbai to turn aggressor at the end to reduce the deficit down to five points and salvage a point from a game that seemed to be slipping away rather badly.
FT: Telugu Titans 35-30 U Mumba
