PKL 2019 Telugu Titans Vs U Mumba Report: U Mumba storm Telugu Titans bastion in the opening match of PKL 7 with Fazel Atrachali and the rest of the defence unravelling the Titans
For Siddharth Desai, the match started and ended with an empty and ended with an empty raid, perfectly epitomising how the match traversed out for the Telegu Titans. Accorded with the stupendous opportunity of becoming the first side in Pro Kabaddi League Season 7 to play their first leg at home, the Titans put in a lopsided display in the raiding facet to be put down 31-25 at the end of the 40 minutes.
Telugu Titans Vs U Mumba Star Performers
U Mumba: Abhishek Singh- 10 points
Telugu Titans: Rajnish- 8 points
How The Match Shaped Out
U Mumba had put their entire focus on the defensive segment in the auctions for the 2019 season of the country’s second biggest league and their arduous faith in the backline paid off today. It was a pinch perfect display from the Mumbai based outfit who were ruthless at the back, unravelling a Telugu Titans raiding unit which completely fell apart under pressure.
The match started off with a bonus point for Rajnish proceeding which Rohit Baliyan was subsequently tackled to give Telegu Titans a 2-1 lead. Unfortunately for the outfit, it was the only time they enjoyed the lead in the encounter with Fazel Atrachali curtailing Siddharth Desai’s raid in the opening minutes which went onto set the tone of the fixture with Rajnish falling down to his tackle next.
From there on it was all U Mumba with Siddharth Desai bitterly disappointing as he went onto come out with two more unsuccessful raids, seeing U Mumba inflict the first all out of the encounter. Buoyed by the bonus points and the stronghold they had exerted over the Titans with Sandeep Narwal perfectly assisting Atrachali in defence as the two came up with astute chain arm tackles and blocks while Abhishek Singh kept succeeding in the front of the mat.
Heading into the second half with a 17-10, U Mumba refused to seize in their gameplan as they realised that this was a Titans side extremely low on confidence. Both the sides started off tentatively, going ahead with three empty raids with Telugu Titans finally winning their do or die raid with Rajnish getting his side a bonus point before Abhishek Singh hit right back with a successful raid point for U Mumba.
The game however completely tilted in U Mumba’s favour in the second half when they went onto inflict the second all out of the clash after Rajnish’s raid was tackled by the side to see Mumbai take an unprecedented 24-13 lead. Looking to comeback from that obliteration, the Titans managed to halt U Mumba’ do or die raid but with Siddharth Desai tackled for the fifth time following that, the side’s star raider massively let his side down.
From 27-19, the Titans managed to get some points in the end with Fazel Atrachali and Arjun Deshwal’s raid both being put to an end ensuing Siddharth Desai finally manage to get two points from his raid but the match was way too out of the Titans grasps. U Mumba had completely descend on the match long before, seeing the scoreline sit comfortably in their favour 31-25 to wrap up an extremely solid performance.
