Aslam, Pankaj shine as Puneri Paltan defeats Telugu Titans

HYDERABAD: Aslam Inamdar, Pankaj Mohite, and Akash Shinde’s combined raiding burst gave the Puneri Paltan a fifth win on the trot with a 38-25 victory over the Telugu Titans in the Pro Kabaddi League Season 9 at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium in Hyderabad on Saturday.

The game kicked off slowly with both teams keen to avoid mistakes and instead just play to their strengths. Buoyed by a partisan home crowd, the Titans constantly kept the Paltan raiders in check, and despite going down in numbers due to Aslam Inamdar’s raiding prowess, it pulled multiple ‘Super Tackles’ to avoid the ‘All Out’. The teams went into the break separated by four points, with the Paltan leading 14-10.

Puneri picked up the tempo early in the second half and within minutes had inflicted the first ‘All Out’ of the evening on the Titans, to surge into a 18-10 lead. The Titans had barely recovered from that and even before it could rally together, another followed. A ‘Super Raid’ by Pankaj Mohite on Parvesh Bhainswal, Vishal Bhardwaj and T Adarsh condemned the Titans to a second ‘All Out’ within seven minutes to leave it down 27-11.

Reeling from the double all out the Titans struggled to get much going in the raiding department and was still reliant on its defenders, who kept pulling off ‘Super Tackles’ to keep it in the game. Another late ‘Super Raid’ by Akash Shinde on Muhammed Shihas, Mohsen Maghsoudlou and Prince D, threatened to wipe the Titans out, but the home side managed to stay afloat. However, the Pune side continued being clinical and eventually registered five wins in a row.

Earlier, U Mumba side put up a fantastic performance to defeat Bengal Warriors 49-41. Raider Guman Singh emerged as the best player for U Mumba with 14 points, while his fellow raider Ashish chipped in with 13 points in the match.

Guman Singh picked up a couple of raid points as U Mumba took the lead at 4-2 in the 5th minute. Guman continued to showcase top form and reduced the Warriors to just one member on the mat in the 7th minute. Moments later, Guman pulled off another magnificent raid to help his team inflict an ‘All Out’ and take a huge lead at 12-4. However, Vaibhav Garje and Girish Maruti Ernak scored tackle points and kept the Warriors in the game at 9-13. The Bengal side kept fighting and inflicted an ‘All Out’ just before half-time, but it was still behind the Mumbai team at 21-23 at the end of the first half.

Results: Puneri Paltan 38 bt Telugu Titans 25; U Mumba 49 bt Bengal Warriors 41; UP Yoddhas 35 bt Patna Pirates 33