Mumbai, February 28: The Telugu Titans kept their chances of making the semi-finals in the Season 3 Star Sports Pro Kabaddi alive with a narrow 42-41 win over leaders Patna Pirates at the NSCI Dome in Mumbai today. It was good news for their fans as Rahul Chaudhari played an important role in this win with 14 raiding points with able assistance from Rohit Baliyan (8 points) and Sukesh Hegde (6).
For the Patna Pirates the valiant efforts of the shy looking Pardeep Narwal went in vain. He scored 24 points with two super raids of three points each. He showed tremendous power in his legs with two super jumps over the rival defenders to escape over the midline.
A shaky Patna Pirates’ defence in which Amit Hooda and Sunil Kumar got out often led to their team’s defeat. In the second half Amit got out as many as six times. For Telugu Titans it was a do-or –die situation against the leaders who already had 57 points and the one they got today helped them finish their engagements with a tally of 58 points.
The Telugu Titans finish their engagements against U Mumba and with 43 points in their kitty would be anxiously awaiting the result of the Puneri Paltan’s match against U Mumba tomorrow. Puneri Paltan have 42 points and play Bengal Warriors in their last match.
The first half too was even with Pardeep Narwal coming up with a consistent show to keep his side in the game. They managed to even lead 21-20 at the break but the fact that they had qualified was reason enough to be relaxed and moreover they might have thought of Hadi Oshtorak’s injury and then decided to prevent further mishaps.
A four-day rest will do them a world of good to take on the next rivals who aren’t yet decided with three days of play yet remaining in the league phase.
