Bulls and Titans play out a thrilling draw

With two of the biggest superstars of kabaddi, Rohit Kumar and Rahul Chaudhari locking horns on the mat at the Mankapur Indoor Stadium, fans anticipated the match to be a cracker on Tuesday evening. The Bulls and the Titans had entered the match in the wake of two and five consecutive defeats respectively, and with the sole aim to get back to winning ways.

Rohit won the toss for Bengaluru Bulls and chose his team’s side of the mat. Chaudhari and Ajay Kumar opened for the Titans and the Bulls respectively but both the raids ended empty. Nilesh Salunke picked up the first point of the match through a bonus for the Titans, while Rohit picked the first for his team through a touch. The 7th minute saw the first do-or-die raid of the match which Chaudhari accomplished easily for his team.

Tenth minute of the game and the scoreline read a mere 4-4! A small injury scare occurred in the 16th minute when Ravinder Pahal tried to tackle Chaudhari and both got injured in the process. While Pahal had to resort to the ice pack, the magic spray was enough to revive Chaudhari. The low-scoring half ended with the Titans asking for a review which ended unsuccessfully and the scoreline read 9-8 in the home team’s favour.

Rohit and Salunke started the proceedings for their teams in the second half but nothing came of their efforts. The 23^rd-minute brought in the first All-Out of the match as the Titans were ousted completely by a Pahal tackle. Soon Rakshith and Mohsen Maghsoudlou entered as substitutes for the Titans to bolster the attack. A series of do-or-die raids shortly after, the Bulls led by 20-15 and looked set to take away the match with just a couple of minutes to spare. The Titans, however, had other plans as they took 5 quick points within a minute to tie the score at 20-20, that included 2 touch points each from Rakshith and Chaudhari and a tackle point from Rakesh Kumar. It all rested on Raid Machine Chaudhari to go for the last raid of the match with just two defenders in the opponent box and win it for his team. He, however, miscalculated thinking the team needed just a single point to win and came out with just one raid point, not considering the bonus point Ashish Kumar had taken in the previous raid for the Bulls. The match ended tied at 21-21 with both teams picking up 3 points each.

Check out our snapshots from this match here.