Telugu Titans begin home leg with thrilling draw against Jaipur Pink Panthers

Telugu Titans managed to claw back from defeat to hold a resurgent Jaipur Pink Panthers 39-39 in a match that would have gone either way. With this the teams earned three points a piece in Season 2 of Star Sports Pro Kabaddi. The Titans remain in second place with 29 points and the Panthers with 16 remain in sixth place. In the first half of Season 2, when the two team met in Jaipur, Telugu Titans had beaten the Pink Panthers 33-22.

The hero of today’s humdinger was undoubtedly the tall Sonu Narwal who was trapped just once by the rival defence. He had a whopping tally of 13 points including three bonus points. And most of them came in the second half as he ran through the Titans to help his side inflict an all-out within ten minutes of resumption after the local side led 20-12 at the break. The score stood at 29-27 to give hopes to the visitors.

Earlier, in the first half, a fine show by Sukesh Hegde had put Titans in a good position with an all-out within seven minutes. He started with a super raid of three points and followed with a couple in another raid.

On the other side Jaipur’s star Jasvir Singh went pointless in the first half as he was time and again successfully tackled by the Iranian duo of Meraj Sheykh and Hadi Oshtorak and Sandeep Kandola. The latter was in full cry and showed why he is dreaded by rival raiders.

Rahul Chaudhari too was his usual self. Having started confidently before the break he pocketed seven points in the latter half. His heroics brought his team back from the brink of defeat. Having been dismissed by their rivals for the second time when they were trailing 34-39, the Titans held their nerve with Sukesh Hegde too pulling his weight. He got two points in the dying minutes which proved crucial in the ultimate analysis.

Jaipur made silly mistakes towards the end and failed to hold on to the lead. Jasvir was caught by Hadi and after two empty raids Rajesh Narwal was caught by Sandeep. It left the Panthers with just a one point advantage. But the impressive Rahul got the vital equalizer. Jasvir who was in next went in and returned under the impression that his team had won the match. It was a terrible mistake by the Panthers who all got it wrong. In the end it was a fair result for both.

MATCH 29 – TELUGU TITANS VS JAIPUR PINK PANTHERS