Rampaging Warriors hand Titans their fourth loss

Telugu Titans came into their fifth match at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium in Hyderabad on Wednesday after three consecutive defeats and desperately needing a win to get back on their feet. Bengal Warriors, on the other hand, were charged up to play their first match of VIVO Pro Kabaddi Season 5 with a new-look team and take advantage of the Titans’ slump in form.

Rahul Chaudhari won the toss and chose his side of the court. Maninder Singh opened the raiding for the Warriors and Chaudhari for the Titans, but both efforts ended empty. Jang Kun Lee then made inroads and won Bengal Warriors’ their first point of the season. In the very next raid, Vikas handed the Titans their first point through a touch. The 7^th-minute saw the star raider of both teams - Jang Kun Lee and Chaudhari, tackled off the mat. Maninder was on fire as he kept on garnering one raid point after another and also initiated the first Super Raid of the match. By the 10th minute, the Warriors had handed the Titans the first All-Out of the match. At the stroke of halftime, Warriors had a 5-point lead at 19-14, with Maninder picking up 9 points by himself.

The second half of the match started with Vikas opening the raid but going back empty-handed. Kun Lee, on the other hand, took two full raid points to take the lead up to 7 points. Thereafter, Rohit Rana and Nilesh Salunke joined the Titans in the middle through substitutions. With the Titans planning to take the defensive route due to Chaudhari spending most of his time off the mat, a series of do-or-die raids followed. The Titans did make an effort to come back into the match but failed to get over the Warriors hurdle and lost the contest.

For the first time in VIVO Pro Kabaddi history, Telugu Titans have lost four matches on the trot, while this is only the second time that Bengal Warriors have been able to win their first match. The last time they did it was in Season 3 against the same opponents.