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Pro Kabaddi 2019 action commenced at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium for the first home leg of the season as the hosts Telugu Titans squared off against U Mumba in the opening fixture of the competition.
With hopes heavily pinned on Siddharth Desai, the Titans went into the game with confidence but were dealt a firm reality check as Desai failed to put up a show and finished with just five points from the game that had a major bearing on the Titans' loss.
In the second game, Pawan Sehrawat and Pardeep Narwal squared off as the latter scored his first Super 10 of the season while in the Bulls' next encounter, none of the raiders could go past eight raid points as the Gujarat Fortune Giants' defensive unit put up a fine show.
Puneri Paltan certainly missed the services of ace raider Nitin Tomar as they fell to big losses from both their games in the Hyderabad leg while Super 10s from Rahul Chaudhari and Deepak Niwas Hooda led the Tamil Thalaivas and Jaipur Pink Panthers to wins from both of their opening fixtures for the season.
However, Naveen was the standout as his 14-point effort helped Dabang Delhi K.C win over the Titans apart from seven points that handed his side a one-point win over the Thalaivas.
However, it was not the best of performances from some raiders, who failed to bring their best on to the mat during the Hyderabad leg. Here is the list of three raiders who flopped during the Hyderabad leg.
#3 Monu Goyat - UP Yoddha
Monu Goyat joined the UP Yoddha from the season seven player auctions and with the company of Shrikant Jadhav and Rishank Devadiga, Monu was set to be a part of the Yoddha's formidable raiding trio.
However, with Rishank ruled out of the first two games, the onus was on Monu to carry the team through and lead from the front. Unfortunately for his side, the star raider picked up just 7 raid points from two matches that saw UP Yoddha crash to two massive losses.
Having picked up 5 raid points against the Bengal Warriors, Monu failed to show up against the mighty defensive unit of the Gujarat Fortune Giants with just a solitary raid point to show.
#2 Jang Kun Lee - Patna Pirates
Bengal Warriors' star raider from season 1 to season 6, Jang Kun Lee's shift to the Patna Pirates does not seem to have worked well for the Korean or the team as a whole. While Pardeep Narwal has been in decent form, Lee has failed to show up.
With just 5 raid points from two matches, Lee has certainly under performed as per his standards. Against the Bengaluru Bulls in Patna Pirates' first game, Lee picked up just the one raid point from seven raids.
In the next game against the Telugu Titans, Lee did pick up four points but from 11 raids, and with the Titans' defenders out of place all throughout the game, the Korean could have easily picked up a lot more points.
While the presence of Mohammad Maghsoudlou does hand Lee less chances to raid, his pace and movement on the mat certainly took a hit in the Hyderabad leg.
#1 Siddharth Desai - Telugu Titans
The costliest player from the season seven auction, all the hopes of the Telugu Titans' management and fans were pinned on Siddharth Desai, but the youngster just failed to come up with even a part of his jaw-dropping exhibition from last season.
With the Telugu Titans playing their home leg, Desai was the latest heartthrob of the Titans' faithful but could not meet the expectations. With just 5 raid points from the season opener against U Mumba and the next game against the Tamil Thalaivas, the Titans were undoubtedly under pressure to pick points, owing to which they lost both games.
The addition of his brother Suraj Desai to the starting seven proved to see a change in fortunes for Desai as he picked 8 raid points, but was constantly under the shadow of his brother, who picked up a record-breaking 18 points in his debut game.
In the Titans' last game at home, against the Patna Pirates, Desai just could not get going as he was brought down multiple times and collected just a mere 5 raid points from 12 raids.
Overall, the youngster finished the home leg with 23 raid points from four matches and was certainly disappointing.
