CHENNAI: Tamil Thalaivas couldn't return to winning ways in the
Pro Kabaddi League with
Puneri Paltan holding them 31-31 in an exciting match here at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium on Sunday evening.
Local boy
Ajith Kumar came up with a brilliant show scoring 8 points while seasoned raider Rahul Chaudhari also shone with the same number of points. For Paltan, Surjeet Singh and Pankaj Mohite scored
eight each while Nitin Tomar (5 pts) and Manjeet scored (5 pts) also contributed well.
With Sunday's draw, Tamil Thalaivas moved up to fifth spot with 23 points from eight games while Puneri Paltan remained at bottom of the league table with 14 points from eight matches.
At the dying moments of the match when Thalaivas were heading for second all-out, Ajith made a super raid to send Manjeet, Hadi Tajik and Nitin Tomar out and get local heroes back into the game.
It was a disappointing day for Thalaivas skipper
Ajay Thakur
as the lanky raider couldn't manage more than one point and didn't get much game time. But other three from the Thalaivas camp - raider Vineet Sharma, defender Mohit Chillar and allrounder Ran Singh - did well scoring three points each.
Desai helps Titans beat Steelers: In the first match of the evening, Siddharth Desai was on fire as the sturdy raider scored a massive 18 points to help Telugu Titans blow away
Haryana Steelers 40-29.
It was Siddharth's second Super 10 of the season and on Sunday he single-handedly destroyed Steelers defence and kept scoring at will. With the win victory, Titans, who were at the 11th spot before Sunday's game, came up to the ninth spot with 18 points from nine games while Haryana Steelers were at the seventh place with 21 points from the same number of matches.
"We are happy to emerge as winners tonight. We are looking forward to taking this confidence and spirit in all our future matches," Siddharth said after the match.
Titans didn't have a good tournament so far managing one win out of eight.
But Sunday's big victory came as a huge morale-booster both for the team and Desai Brothers - Siddharth and Suraj (6 pts) - who were instrumental in Titans' victory.
On the other-hand, Steelers' inform raider Vikash Kandola, on the back of a hat-trick of Super 10s, tried his best to deny as many points to Titans, but his effort was not enough to stop the rivals from posting a huge win.