Pro Kabaddi: Desai finds A-game as Titans outplay Steelers; Thalaivas, Paltan play out thrilling tie

Siddharth Desai starred in Telugu Titans’ 40-29 win over Haryana Steelers in a Pro Kabaddi League match at the Nehru indoor stadium in Chennai on Sunday.

Later in the night, Tamil Thailavas recovered from Saturday night’s heartbreak against Bengaluru Bulls to play out a thrilling tie against Puneri Paltan.

Pune went ahead by 15-13 at the half time and the home team bounced back in the second half as the match ended 31-31.

Youngsters Ajeet and Manjeet were the stars for Thalaivas and Paltan respectively in a match that had been billed as a clash of the Kabaddi stalwarts. Rahul Chaudhari, Ajay Thakur and Mohit Chhillar are all Kabaddi royalty for a reason, and it was hardly a surprise when Thaliavas made a dominant start to the match on their home mat.

But it was Pune who inflicted the first all-out on the Thalaivas with nine minutes remaining till half time. The Chennai-based team started confidently after the reset though, with Rahul Chaudhari and local-boy Ajeet dominating the raids. The first half ended 15-13 in favour of Puneri Paltan.

Ran Singh’s consistent tackles turned things around for the Chennai team, clinching their first all-out within two minutes after the restart. Thalaivas’ defence had a better game plan in the second half, and that proved crucial.

Pankaj Mohite, playing his first season, defied his experience, to push his side ahead with little over three minutes remaining and reducing the Thailavas on the mat to one. But Ajeet, who was the last man standing, had other plans, securing four points in a Super Raid, with slightly over two minutes remaining in the encounter, to tilt the balance once again in Thalaivas’ favour.

But both Chaudhari for Thalaivas and Manjeet for Paltan failed in their attempts at Do-or-Die raids in the final minute which saw the sides finish level on points.

Earlier, Desai with 18 points, including a ‘Super 10’ (a Super 10 is achieved when a raider scores 10 or more raid points in a single game), played a key role and helped Titans’ snap the Steelers’ three-match winning run.

Siddharth Desai, who scored his second Super 10 of the season, took the fight to the opponent, along with his brother Suraj.

Titans went into the match with just one win in eight matches, but the lack of confidence was certainly not evident from the outset as the Desai brothers showed their class.

In-form Vikash Kandola, on the back of a hat-trick of Super 10s, was in no mood to let the Titans run away with the match though as he kept pace with the South Indian team.

The most crucial point of the first half came with eight minutes remaining when Siddarth Desai combined well with his team to tackle Kandola.

Vishal Bhardwaj, playing his 50th match in the PKL, brought about the first all-out in the match, assisting Abozar Mighani to tackle Naveen with four minutes remaining to half time.

The first half ended 21-13 in favour of the Titans.

In the second half too, the Titans’ defence kept Kandola at bay and they inflicted a second all-out on Haryana with 11 minutes remaining till the end with Siddharth Desai at the forefront.

It was Titans’ second win of the season.