PKL 8: Bengaluru Bulls beat Telugu Titans in South Indian derby

Super 10 score by Pawan Sehrawat helped Bengaluru Bulls beat Telugu Titans 36-31 in Match 74 of Pro Kabaddi League Season 8 at The Sheraton Grand, Whitefield, here on Sunday.

The Bulls captain scored 12 points, 10 of which came in the first half, as the Season 6 champions kept calm in the final minutes of the match to win the South Indian derby. The win helped the Bulls move to the first position on the points table and stop a three-match losing streak. The Titans remained at the bottom with just one win in the entire season.

Rajnish missed out on the Titans squad and that certainly hampered their performance in the first half. Bengaluru and Pawan Sehrawat started the match with high intensity and Titans could not match it. They were all-out in the 10th minute to trail by seven points. Pawan and Bharat kept pushing the Telugu defence who had no answers for their dynamism. Chandran Ranjit's absence was not felt on the mat by the Bulls as they opened an 11-point lead by the end of the first half (22-11). Pawan Sehrawat also picked his Super 10 in a half that belonged completely to the Bulls.

The Titans' defence looked much more confident in the early minutes of the second half as they prevented the Bulls from running away with the lead. Akash Choudhary and Surinder Singh contributed with tackle points while Ankit Beniwal took turns with Adarsh T in raiding duties. Bengaluru had an eight-point lead with 10 minutes remaining but only had 3 men on the mat.

The Titans got their first all-out with seven minutes on the clock to reduce the Bulls' lead to five points. Akash Choudhary clinched his High 5 as the Titans put pressure on the Bulls in the final minutes of the match. But Deepak Narwal's raiding and Saurabh Nandal's solid tackling ensured the Bulls have a 5-point lead in the last minute.

--IANS

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