Date: 31st July
Time: 9PM IST (4:30PM BST)
Venue: Gachibowli Indoor Stadium, Hyderabad
Zone: B
Line-ups
Telugu Titans: Vishal Bhardwaj, Rahul Chaudhari (C), Rohit Rana, Mohsen Maghsoudloujafari (✈️), Sombir, Vikas, Rakesh Kumar.
Subs used: Amit Singh Chhillar, Nilesh Salunke, Rakshith.
U.P. Yoddha: Pankaj, Nitin Tomar (C), Rajesh Narwal, Mahesh Goud, Jeeva Kumar, Rishank Devadiga, Nitesh Kumar.
Subs used: Surender Singh.
Match Report
This game started off quickly with by sides picking up points one by one, with Nitin Tomar and Rishank Devadiga picking up points for U.P. Yoddha and Rahul Chaudhari picking up points for Telugu Titans. The score stayed tight throughout the first half with the scores at half time 11-12 to U.P. Yoddha.
The first five minutes started in similar fashion with the teams trading points, but with U.P. Yoddha down to 4 players with their main raiders on the bench, they made a substitution taking off a defender and putting on Surinder Singh. The very next raid, he got a super raid and picked up 3 points! Arguably the turning point of the match the scores were now 13-17 to U.P. Yoddha.
Nilesh Salunke came on but was ineffective and U.P. Yoddha picked up the all out to move comfortably ahead, 14 points to 23 points. Rahul Chaudhari did his best to get Telugu Titans back into the game and made the scores 18-25, but then U.P. Yoddha secured a super tackle moving ahead 18-27. With just a few mins left little changed and U.P. Yoddha beat Telugu Titans by 18-31.
Star Players
- For Telugu Titans Rahul Chaudhari was back on form securing 7 raid points however was not backed up by anyone. In defence Vishal Bhardwaj impressed again picking up 3 tackle points for the Titans.
- For U.P. Yoddha Nitin Tomar justified his price tag and secured 6 raid points whilst neatly backed up by Rishank Devadiga who got 5 raid points.
- In defence Nitesh Kumar was impressive and fierce and picked up 5 tackle points!
Match Prediction
Prediction: Telugu Titans 32-35 U.P. Yoddha
Actual result: Telugu Titans 18-31 U.P. Yoddha
A lower scoring game than predicted with Telugu performing much poorer.
In the future…
Yet another loss for Telugu Titans will have their heads scratching about how they can turn this around, Rahul Chaudhari had a decent game this time around but the other raiders did not perform and neither did the defence, with exception to Vishal Bhardwaj. The Titans have two games left in their home leg and will hope to get a win from at least one of them.
U.P. Yoddha, looked a strong side before the match and look even stronger now after this win. They have 4 very good raiders, a young and old defence but they performed well. No doubt the defence will be tested more later in the tournament and we’ll see how that holds out.
SPKabaddi 