Telugu Titans were coming off a highly morale-boosting win over Gujarat Fortune Giants for their very first victory of Pro Kabaddi League Season 7. Sitting on the last position on the points table, the Titans badly required to win. Bengal Warriors had emerged victorious in their prior face-off against U Mumba.
Read to find out how the anticipated battle between Telugu Titans and Bengal Warriors unfolded itself at the Eka Arena by TranStadia in Ahmedabad on Monday.
Starting 7s
Bengal Warriors: Maninder Singh, K. Prapanjan, Baldev Singh, Jeeva Kumar, Viraj Vishnu Landge, Rinku Narwal, Esmaeil Nabibakhsh
Telugu Titans: Abozar Mohajermighani, Amit Kumar, Siddharth Sirish Desai, Suraj Desai, C. Arun, Vishal Bhardwaj, Farhad Rahimi Milaghardan
Toss
Bengal Warriors won the toss and chose the court.
Siddharth "Baahubali" Desai went for Telugu's first raid and returned with a quick point. Opening the account for the Warriors, the master tactician Nabibakhsh stole a point after sending Desai off the mat.
In a brilliant tackle, Baldev scored for the Warriors with excellence. After a warrior-like dubki effort from Prapanjan, his tactics were put to rest by Telugu's defense. Vishal Bhardwaj, once again displaying his mind-blowing skills, did not allow the raiders of Bengal to make a move.
It was a neck-to-neck battle since the very inception, where the Titans inched ahead 7-5 after twelve minutes into the face-off. Reduced to just three defenders on the mat, Nabibakhsh inflicted a top-class tackle on Desai, sending him to the bench.
A dash by Rinku gave Bengal a lead at the end of the first half, which was later challenged by the Titans. The review, which was a crucial one, was declared successful upon inspection, swaying the score 13-11 in Telugu's direction.
As the second half commenced, Bengal took a review to save the squad from an all-out, which did not go their way and left the Warriors helpless. They eventually conceded the first all-out of the night. The experienced Jeeva Kumar was on fire, keeping the Desai brothers at bay with ease.
The Titans yet again claimed a review, which was unfortunately not in their favour. Blowing the return-trumpet, the Warriors gradually started making a comeback, eventually giving an all-out to the Titans in the 31st minute.
Suraj Desai, the sibling of Siddharth, left his sloppy form behind and finally managed some pivotal points for his squad. Bhardwaj, giving a repeat performance from his last match, was immaculate with his tackles.
With just five minutes remaining in the other half, the score 27-26 was tilted in Telugu's favour. Prapanjan, on the other hand, put up a sour show against the yellow army. In this enthralling clash, it was hard to predict the winner even two minutes before the buzzer raid.
After a last-second decider, the match ended up on a tie with 29 each. Both teams decided the play safe towards the end and hence did not allow the opponents to seize the victory. it was a much better day for the Titans, despite their tie, as the full team contributed and were clearly much better than Bengal.
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