Rahul Chaudhari produced a sizzling performance to lead Telugu Titans' to a 44-35 win over hosts Dabang Delhi at the Indira Thyagraj Sports Complex here today.
Rahul, who was substituted towards the end, had a dream rally of 17 points for the match. He had three tackle points in that to show his all-round prowess. He was supported well by Rohit Baliyan, who had a super raid of three to his credit.
For Dabang Delhi, who were shot out three times in the match by their rivals, scored through lead raiders Surjeet Singh and Kashiling Adake who excelled with 13 and 10 points respectively in a high-scoring match which was dominated by the attackers.
After their sixth win in 11 match, Telugu Titans have thus improved their chances of making it to the last four. They have 33 points. Dabang Delhi have 7 points in 10 matches with just one win.
Pune captain Manjeet Chhillar expressed optimism that
the team will not only reach semis but also win the title.
"Our target is to come first, not just to reach in semi-final or final. So we are working hard, we are practising well and the most important thing is all our players are fit."
"The players sitting in the bench are also fit and ours is a strong team. All the eight teams are strong and I believe we have worked hard and both our coaches are working hard with us," Chhillar said.
"Our team consists of juniors and players, who are senior to me as well. We have very disciplined players in our team. My target is to win all the four matches in Mumbai," he added.
Pune team's manager Kailash Kandpal said that unfortunately the team had to play its home games in Mumbai.
"It's unfortunate that we had to move out of Poona (Pune was to host the first leg as per the tentative schedule put out) but, yes, Maharashtra is our home and we will surely get the same kind of support that we were getting in Poona."
"In season 4, we decided again that we should strengthen our think-tank and so we roped in (coach K) Baskaran to ably support Ashok Shinde. With the help of the three (Ashok, Baskaran and Manjeet), we have developed one of the strongest teams on paper," he added.
