Pro Kabaddi 2016 | Puneri Paltan edge past Telugu Titans to retain third spot
Last edition’s 3rd-place winners Puneri Paltan retained their 3rd spot in the 4th season of Pro Kabaddi League after defeating Telugu Titans 35-40 at the Gachibowli indoor stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday. In the match, Rahul Chaudhari also became the 1st player to score 500 points in the PKL.
Starting seven:
Telugu Titans : Rahul Chaudhari, Nilesh Salunke, Rupesh Tomar, S Mahalingam, Sagar B Krishna, Sandeep Narwal, Vishal Bhardwaj
Puneri Paltan: Ajay Thakur, Nitin Tomar, Somvir Shekhar, Parmod Narwal, Deepak Niwas Hooda, Ajay Thakur, Ravinder Kumar, Joginder Narwal
After losing a nail-biting semi-final to defending champions Patna Pirates, last edition's third-place winners Puneri Paltan went into the third-place play-off against Telugu Titans hoping to retain the third spot once again. Skipper Manjeet Chhillar, who played against Patna Pirates in the semis, sat out the match with him still suffering from the shoulder injury. Joginder Narwal took the captaincy in his absence for the Pune side.
On the other hand, home side Telugu Titans had suffered a heavy defeat to inaugural champions Jaipur Pink Panthers in the semis and took on Puneri Paltan in a bid to secure the third position for the second time in the PKL history, having finished third in the second season. Titans hopes were pinned on skipper Rahul Chaudhari, who was just one point away from becoming the first player to reach 500 points in the history of PKL.
The two matches between the sides in the league stage went down to the wire with both teams securing one win each. But, Puneri Paltan started the match on a positive note and secured an all-out within the first ten minutes to take a seven-point lead at 10-3. All eyes were on Rahul Chaudhari, but the Telugu Titans skipper went through three empty raids at the start to disappoint the home fans. A bonus point in his fourth raid helped him reach the 500-point mark in PKL. But, the euphoria of the Rahul Chaudhari’s feat was quickly diminished by Deepak Niwas Hooda, as he touched the Telugu skipper and Sandeep Narwal to enforce an all-out.
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With the score at 10-3 in favour of Pune, it looked like an uphill task for the home side. But, Rahul Chaudhari reduced the lead to four by securing a super raid and ousting Somvir
With three minutes to go for the end of the half, Telugu Titans brought in Athul MS for Sagar B Krishna and the change turned the match on its head. In the next raid, Athul stepped into the lobby without a touch and three defenders from Pune – Joginder Narwal, Preetam Chhillar, and Parmod Narwal - followed him to gift three points to the home side. Although Pune reviewed the decision, the points went to Telugu Titans. From a 15-8 lead for Pune, the match went to 17-14 by the time the half-time break came and the Titans were
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Rahul Chaudhari did the formality after the break and touched Hooda to enforce an all-out and to level the points at 17-17. The star
Hooda and Chaudhari scored points for fun with both the players crossing the
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