Girish Maruti Ernak registers High Five as Pune overcome Hyderabad

Puneri Paltan beat Telugu Titans 42-37 in a thrilling encounter at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Indoor Stadium in Kolkata on Thursday. Captain Deepak Hooda was their best raider with nine points, while Girish Maruti Ernak managed a High Five and accounted for a total of seven points in the game.

Pune made a stunning start to the match by effecting the first All-Out of the game in the sixth minute without even conceding a point to take a 9-0 lead. The Paltan continued their assault on Hyderabad and inflicted a second All-Out on them inside 10 minutes to continue the decimation of the Titans and make it 18-0.

Hyderabad got their first point of the evening in the 11^th minute thanks to a self-out by Pune. The Titans finally showed began to show some fight after a four-point super raid by Elangeshwaran R. It acted as a much-needed shot in the arm for Hyderabad, who effected their first All-Out on Pune in the 15^th minute to make it 23-10. The last five minutes of the half saw both sides trading blows in equal measure as Pune took a well-deserved 26-12 lead into the break.

The second period began with the teams notching up points mostly in attack before Pune’s defence also got in on the act. Hyderabad’s defence also showed some fight with a super tackle in the 27^th minute but it merely delayed the inevitable as the Titans succumbed to a third All-Out in the match soon after to make the score 37-18 in favour of Pune.

The last 10 minutes of the second half saw both Mohsen Maghsoudlou and Rahul Chaudhari pull off super raids before inflicting an All-Out on Pune in the 36^th minute to make it 40-30. It set up an exhilarating finish with both Maghsoudlou and Chaudhari raiding successfully at will to make it 40-36 in the penultimate minute. However, a super tackle on Chaudhari in the closing stages ensured that Pune managed to see out Hyderabad’s late assault and win by five points.

 Check out our snapshots from this match here.