PKL 11: Pawan powers Titans to third straight win in Southern Derby thriller

Pawan Sehrawat’s 12 points and contributions from Ashish Narwal and Vijay Malik helped Telugu Titans beat Tamil Thalaivas 35-34 in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

Hyderabad: Telugu Titans clinched their third consecutive win of the season defeating Tamil Thalaivas 35-34 in a nail-biting Southern Derby contest of the Pro Kabaddi League Season 11 at the GMCB Indoor Stadium in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

Led by Pawan Sehrawat’s 12 points and contributions from Ashish Narwal and Vijay Malik, they got over the line despite Sachin Tanwar scoring a mammoth 17 points for the Tamil Thalaivas. It was a watchful start from both sides as Ashish Narwal and Narender Kandola exchanged early blows to get the ball rolling. After a tight start, it was the hi-flying Pawan who sprang into action to inflict an all-out on Tamil Thalaivas, giving Telugu Titans a four-point lead.

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Sachin didn’t waste much time to make his presence felt either, managing a super raid to close the gap for Tamil Thalaivas to two points after the first quarter of the game. However, it was the duo of Pawan and Ashish that kept Telugu Titans in the lead, as the two combined for 10 touchpoints in the first half, with the score at 20-17 after the first 20 minutes.

Slowly but steadily, Tamil Thalaivas managed to claw their way back into the contest in the second half. Sachin reached a significant milestone of 1000 raid points and followed it up by completing his super 10 in the game, giving his side a brief lead. Despite Tamil Thalaivas building on that momentum and inflicting an all-out, Ashish made sure that the two teams stayed neck and neck at 25 points each.

After a quiet period in the second half, the heavyweight battle between two-star raiders continued. Pawan showed his class once more, scoring a super raid to complete his super 10 and put Telugu Titans back on top by 3 points. That was before Sachin got a two-point raid of his own, keeping his side in the hunt.

There was no stopping the most expensive player in the PKL this year as he completed 17 raid points that put the pressure back on the Telugu Titans. With the game coming down to the wire and only one point separating the two sides, it was Ankit who executed a superb tackle on Sachin to seal the deal for Telugu Titans.