Puneri Paltan showed a great performance without their superstar Rahul Choudhary being kicked off the mat after five minutes of play. Paltans got the better of Telugu Titans by a margin of 34-33 in their second match of the eighth season of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKl) at Sheraton Grand on Saturday (December 25).
Titans played a tie against Tamil Thalaivas in their first match. Siddharth Bahubali Desai returned to form for Titans and scored a total of 15 points but due to lack of support from other raiders, he could not lead his team to victory. On the other hand, Paltan's substitute Mohit Goyat garnered 9 points and Aslasam Inamdar scored 8 points to prove Desai's figures short.
Desai was the biggest threat to Paltan. He had scored four points in the first six minutes. Titans had a lead of 5-4, soon Paltan were on the lead 8-6. Desai took the score on his fifth raid and scored 7-8. Titans caught Pankaj Mohit to equalise the score 8-8. There were three players in the platoon. Bonus was on as well as super tackle. The score was 9-9. Paltan took the lead 11-9 by making a super tackle against Desai. The defense of the platoon was playing brilliantly.
Up next, Titans caught Mohit Goyat on a do or die raid and gave Desai a chance to come in. On the next raid, Desai lost his balance and was hunted but before that Sanket Desai had touched the endline. All the defenders including Sanket caught Desai. A review was taken, in which Titans got five points and Paltan also got one point after Desai was dismissed. The score was 13-14. After this, the platoon was dismissed and took the lead 17-14. Desai now completed the super raid and took the Titans 20-14 ahead. The first half ended with the lead of six points. After the break, Paltan scored a do or die raid and made the score 15-20. There was a task cut out for the next raid for Paltan. Mohit dismissed Rohit and made the score 16-20. The platoon was on its way back. He made the score 18-21 with two consecutive points. Super tackle was on for Titans. Both the teams were on do or die raid.
For Paltan, Mohit Goyat not only got the Titans out by scoring three points on super raid but also gave his team the lead. Meanwhile, Desai completed super-10. Paltan had scored 10 points in the last five minutes while Titans got only one point. Paltan took a 25-21 lead by dismissing captain Rohit on the next raid. Ankit Beniwal was tackled on the next raid. As soon as Desai came, he did a super raid and the score became 25-25.
Super tackle was on for the platoon. Captain Vishal Bhardwaj gave the platoon a 27-26 lead with a super tackle against Desai. The Titans, however, quickly leveled at 28-28. Super tackle was on for the platoon. Desai dismissed captain Vishal and put the Titans ahead 29-28. Paltan got two points on the next raid. The score was 30-29 but Desai made the score 30-30 with another point. Paltan, however, got out on the next raid and the score became 31-33. Now only two and a half minutes were left. On Aslam's next raid, C. Arun released the chain and Paltan got a point. Paltan caught Desai on Do or Die Raid and made the score 33-33. On the next raid, Mohit Goyat took the points and made Paltan lead 34-33. The last raid of the match taken by Paltan went empty but despite that he opened the account of victory. Paltan had earlier lost in their first match against Delhi.
