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Telugu Titans defeat Patna Pirates by 35-31 at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Pune.
The match was a roller-coaster ride with both teams going through their ups and downs before the Titans' managed to hold on to the lead during the final moments of the match to clinch the encounter and go to the top of the Zone B points table.
Both teams inflicted an all-out onto their opposition, but it was the Titans' defense with an astounding 15 tackle points that became the differentiator.
It was the Titans' captain, Vishal Bhardwaj who was their star defender with 6 tackle points, including a super-tackle. Abozar Mighani, the right corner Iranian supported him well and scored a High-5, which also included a super-tackle.
The duo of Vishal and Abozar is turning out to be a lethal pair and is undoubtedly the strongest corner-duo in the competition. They have worked together well with other members of the defense to score a whopping 57 tackle points from just 4 matches, with an average of 14.25 tackles per match.
Rahul Chaudhari was the Titans' top raider with 7 points, followed by Nilesh Salunkhe and Mohsen Maghsoudlou who contributed with 5 and 3 raid points respectively.
The Pirates, on the other hand, were let down by their defense who managed just 8 tackle points, while their raiders contributed with 19 raid points.
It was Jaideep (3 tackle points) and Vikas Jaglan (2 tackle points) who managed to leave an impression on the match with their defending, otherwise the rest of the defense individually as well as a team failed to complement its raiders.
It's a rare sight for Pardeep Narwal to not feature as the top raider for the Pirates in a match, and today was that occasion. Pardeep could manage just 5 raid points from his 15 attempted raids, as the Titans' defense had his number on multiple occasions.
The Pirates' top raiders were Manjeet (7 raid points) and Vijay, who came off the bench to score 7 raid points and a tackle point.
The Pirates' have always depended on their attack to win them games, and today the under-performance of two of their primary raiders - Pardeep and Deepak Narwal, turned out to be a prime factor behind the loss.
The Patna outfit would be next seen in action against the Jaipur Pink Panthers on the 26th, while the Titans will take on U Mumba on the 23rd, both as part of the Inter-Zone Challenge Week.
