Pro Kabaddi League 2017 Season 5: 5 talking points from Day 1 of PKL 5

The first day of Pro Kabaddi League began with two mouth watering derbies dished out to the massive crowds who came to the Gachibowli Stadium in Hyderabad. The tournament opener saw two teams from South India, Ajay Thakur's Tamil Thalaivas and Rahul Chaudhari's Telugu Titans, go up against each other where the latter showed why he and his team are the favourites in the fifth season of the Pro Kabaddi League.

The second game of the double header saw two Maharashtra teams locking horns and U Mumba unleashing the dream raiding pair of Kashiling Adake and Anup Kumar on Puneri Paltan, who had previously defeated the Season 2 winners only once. However, it all came a cropper for U Mumba as Pune's defence proved too good on the day to hand them their second victory over U Mumba in the Pro Kabaddi League history.

#1 Ajay Thakur 'slaps' Rahul Chaudhari

The match was billed as a battle between the star of India’s Kabaddi World Cup, Ajay Thakur and the undisputable star of Pro Kabaddi League, Rahul Chaudhari. And that’s how it began with both taking every raid as if to prove a point. After Rahul Chaudhari took a successful raid with a touch at the left corner in the first half, Thakur came to take a raid.

As the chain prowled around him, he bluffed them with his nifty footwork and before anyone could realize, Thakur flung his hand at a cornered Chaudhari to take him out and ran back quickly to make it count. The replays revealed that it was almost a slap that made Chaudhari wince in pain for a while before leaving the mat. However, in hindsight, the slap probably wasn’t that good an idea as a galvanized Chaudhari made merry to finish with10 points while Ajay Thakur had little to cheer about after that.

#2 Salunke rises to the occasion

Nilesh Salunke has big shoes to fill with him becoming the second in lead to Rahul Chaudhari this season in Sukesh Hegde’s absence. There were a few doubts about Salunke whom the Titans bought back at the auctions before season 5 but if his performance in the first match is any indication of how good he is, he probably put those doubts to rest.

With just four Thalaivas left and an initial advantage waiting to be taken, Salunke went in to take the do or die raid in the 11th minute. Realizing how important captain Ajay Thakur is to the young Thaliavas team, Salunke targeted him and did it successfully to get two points leaving a hapless Thalaivas with only three men on the mat. And next came in Chaudhari to take his raid and no points for guessing which team’s score went up. That moment was only one of the many in the match where a matured and confident Salunke rose up to the occasion for the Thalaivas.

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#3 Chaudhari's 'brain fade' moment gets himself benched

Rahul Chaudhari was on a roll after the first thirty minutes and the Thalaivas defenders could do nothing to stop him as he raced to a super 10 with more than 10 minutes left on the clock. But then came the moment that sent him out of action for more than five minutes. And no, it wasn’t a Thalaivas defender yet who had found the antidote to Chaudhari’s superlative raiding. In fact, it was the 24 year old own’s brain fade moment that cost him.

Going in for a raid, Chaudhari targeted the left corner and claimed with his hand up that he had got his man. The referee and the Thalaivas thought otherwise, forcing the Titans pushing for a review. The review not only revealed that Chaudhari had failed to get any touch point but also showed how, in celebration of his point that wasn’t, he ended up jumping into the lobby. A dejected Chaudhari had to sit and watch from the sidelines as Thalaivas threatened to mount a comeback. However, in the end, except for a few personal raid points that he missed out by not being on the mat, Chaudhari’s benching made little difference to the ultimate result.

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#4 Pune’s defence stifles the life out of U Mumba’s star studded raiding department

Before the fifth season, two notions have more or less assumed the status of 'truths' in Pro Kabaddi League – U Mumba hold the wood over Puneri Paltan in the much famed Maharashtrian derby with a head to head record of 7-1 in their favour. And there is no replacement for formidable defence if a team wants to put in a good performance. At least on Friday, one was proved correct while one wasn’t.

A star studded raiding department of U Mumba with the likes of Anup Kumar, Kashiling Adake, Shabeer Bapu and Nitin Madne in their ranks were left stunned by Puneri Paltan’s defence. In the first 10 minutes, except for Anup Kumar, all raiders were left warming the bench as the Pune defenders ably led by the experienced Cheralathan and Sandeep Narwal took the U Mumba raiders out one by one and racked up the points to effect an all out. Suddenly, with just 10 minutes of the match gone, U Mumba were staring at a mountain to climb

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#5 Captain Hooda’s Super Raid

With a trail of 10 points already weighing heavy on the U Mumba players minds, they made a mistake that just put the match out of their reach even with 15 minutes left on the clock. Already with his tail up, Deepak Niwas Hooda came to take a raid with just three U Mumba players on the mat.

Looking already sloppy, the U Mumba defence showed no coordination as they tried to tackle Hooda but ended up making a mess of it eventually to allow Hooda to take three men over the line. With a Super raid, Hooda not only brought his team 5 vital points but almost sealed the fate of the match as the score read 25-10 in the favour of the men in orange. Some valiant Kabaddi followed from U Mumba skipper Anup Kumar but it could only reduce the Puneri Paltan's victory margin as the rest failed to step up when it mattered.