Pro Kabaddi 2019, Telugu Titans v Bengaluru Bulls: 5 talking points from the match

The Bengaluru Bulls continued their winning run as they notched up a comfortable win over the Telugu Titans at the Pro Kabaddi League Season 7 in Patna on Thursday. The match ended 47-26 in favour of the defending champions, with Pawan Sehrawat being the show stopper yet again for his team.

The raider ended the match with a whopping 17 points to his name, that saw him cross the 400-raid point mark as well during the match. Skipper Rohit Kumar also regained some of his old form, scoring eight points while Mahender Singh picked up a High 5 in defence for the Bulls.

For the Titans, the search for their first win of the season is still on. Perhaps their only consolation was Siddharth Desai finally getting his first Super 10 of the season but they have a number of issues to sort out, with right corner Abozar Mighani looking woefully out of form.

Here are the five major talking points from the match:

#5 Pawan's hot streak shows no sign of abating

Pawan Sehrawat (centre) lit up the mat yet again

Pawan Sehrawat has lit up the Pro Kabaddi League and came into the clash after a match-winning display, where he picked up 29 points against Bengal Warriors. He simply picked up from where he left off with a fine display in the starting stages of the encounter.

He was on fire with his raiding again but what certainly caught the eye was his defensive contribution this time around as he ended the first half with eight points, which consisted of three tackle points as well.

With his team down to two, the raider showed remarkable strength to pull down the opposition's lead raider Siddharth Desai with a fine arm tackle, thus earning his team two points with the super tackle and also saving them from an all out. He was on song with his raiding as well, ending up with 13 raid points as Rohit Kumar also looked in good touch for the Bulls.

#4 Advantage Bulls at the break

The Bulls went into the break with their tails upÂ — The Bulls went into the break with their tails up

The first 10 minutes of the match were tightly contested, with the Bengaluru side enjoying a slight advantage. However, Pawan stepped up yet again to reduce the Titans to one man on the mat.

Ankit Beniwal came off the bench to keep them in the game but Rohit Kumar mopped up the two defenders left to complete the all out with six minutes to go in the second half and handed his side a sizeable advantage at 19-8.

However, Armaan of the Titans struck back for his team with a super raid just two minutes later, getting rid of Pawan Sehrawat, Mohit Sehrawat and Amit Sheoran.

Despite the comeback from the Telugu side, it was the Bulls yet again who went into the break with their tails up thanks to skipper Rohit Kumar. The raider picked up three successful raids in a row and ensured his team had the upper hand after the first half as the scoreline read 21-14.

#3 Siddharth Desai finally gets his first Super 10 of Season 7

After a stellar Pro Kabaddi Season 6 with U Mumba, Siddharth Desai was billed as the man to watch out for after fetching a record price at the Season 7 auction. However, he has flattered to deceive with the Titans so far, picking up just 28 raid points in his first five games at an average of 5.6.

The Titans started off the game with him being the only Desai on the mat as elder brother Suraj Desai was not named in the starting seven. Starting off strongly, Siddharth once again showed glimpses of his abilities. He picked up five raid points in the first half but also had to spend a considerable amount of time on the bench with other players struggling to register on the scoreboard.

Siddharth, who made a Super 10 on his Pro Kabaddi debut, finally picked up his first of this season with eight minutes to go, getting a touch of Mahender Singh.

#2 Pawan-Rohit duo blows away the Titans

Pawan Sehrawat was once again his dangerous self against the Titans, whose defence had no response to his lightning-quick raids and extraordinary strength. Given that both teams have the least tackle points for far this season, it was a battle of the raiding units that was the one to keep an eye on and the duo of Pawan and Rohit Kumar did the business for their team.

Pawan completed his Super 10 with 10 minutes to go in the game and also achieved another milestone - crossing 400 raid points in PKL history. And he achieved that with an audacious super raid where he eliminated Amit Kumar, Armaan and Abozar Mighani in one swipe. Such was his dominance that he was tackled successfully for the first time in his 14th raid.

Rohit Kumar, who had only 10 raid points in four matches so far, was imperious this time around and clinched a total of eight points in the game, which will be great news for Bulls fans.

#1 Season already over for the Titans?

Is it already over for the struggling Titans?

With 12 teams in the competition and only six spots up for grabs in the playoffs, the race for supremacy will be a really cut-throat one and can be expected to go right down to the wire. However, the Titans could already be out of it as they are yet to pick up their first win in six matches and are rock-bottom of the table, failing to pick up even a consolation point after a 47-26 loss to the Bulls.

The team will look to head back to the drawing board and work on the issues plaguing the side. Siddharth Desai's Super 10 will be a silver lining for the Titans for sure but more serious issues lie in defence, that was left reeling by Pawan Sehrawat and Rohit Kumar, especially on the right corner.

Abozar Mighani, who is an Asian Games gold medalist and one of the best right-corners in the world, had a shocker against the Bulls. He failed to pick up even a single point, in addition to giving away four unsuccessful tackles. The Iranian would really want to step up to the mark in the coming games and his form will be crucial should the Titans make any sort of comeback on the points table.

Edited by Sudeshna Banerjee