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Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) season 2021-22 kicked off with a one-sided affair with U Mumba beating Bengaluru Bulls by 46-30. But the second encounter itself turned out to be a cracker of a contest where Telugu Titans squared off Tamil Thalaivas in the South Indian affair. Thalaivas managed to take a lead of 39-38 and then 40-39 in the final stages of the game and were smelling the victory and put their money on the most successful raider of the match, Manjeet, to seal the match for them. However, an unsuccessful raid from the raider Manjeet made sure the game ends in a tie with both sides securing 40 points each.
After an impressive start and taking early advantage of 12-5, Titans lost their way. The star raider Manjeet brought Thalaivas back in the contest. In fact, the Tamil side went with their noses ahead at the end of the first half with a scoreline of 23-21.
Thalaivas continued their good work in an early stage of the second half as well, gaining the lead of 33-28 over Titans. K. Prapanjan’s side were cruising towards victory. But in the second half Titans upped the ante and exceptional defending from Sandeep Kandola kept the side in the game despite losing an early advantage.
The nail-biting contest went down to the wire with Thalaivas leading the chart with the scoreline of 40-39 but a clever empty raid from Siddharth Desai’s side forced Thalaivas to go for a do-or-die raid with just tip of seconds remaining on the clock. The Tamilians took it on the chin and went with their best possible chance in the form of Manjeet but the expectations and pressure eventually got the better of the raider.
The contest was evenly poised in both halves and ultimately the score sheet of 40-40 just gives glimpses of the fire-cracker contest we witnessed on the opening day of the eighth season of PKL. Both sides will share three points as the game ended up with a tie.
