Mumbai : Puneri Paltan began the defence of their title with a naroow 28-24 win over Telugu Titans while U Mumba edge past Jaipur Pink Panthers 36-34 in their opening games of the fourth season of Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League, here on Saturday.
Mumbai after dominating the first half was sent on the back foot by some brilliant tackles by the Panthers. In six minutes Mumbai was all out twice and Panthers were surging ahead with lead. But U Mumba displayed some tactical play and had some successful raids as well as tackles when it mattered most. Panthers getting all out with barely 2 minutes remaining was the final nail in the coffin. Shabbir Babu and Jasveer tried very hard, but they could not keep U Mumba away from a well deserved victory. Amitabh, Abhishek, Jaya Bachaan along with Shahrukh Khan, Ranveer Kapoor were also present for the match.
Earlier, The Titans started aggressively and put in a solid all-round performance with their attack and defense working well in tandem. Paltan’s raider struggled in the first half and their Nitin Tomar was restricted to zero points. It took nine minutes for the Titans to inflict the first all-out of the match with the score at 11-6. It looked like the defending champions were losing their grip on the match but came back to reduce the deficit to two points and the score at half time was 15-13 in the favour of Telugu Titans.
The second half, however, was a different story as Paltan showed their mettle and Manjeet Chhillar was solid at the back. With the game on knife’s edge at 18-17, Puneri Paltan struck at the right time to inflict their first all-out.
