PKL: Titans clinch thriller vs Haryana

Visakhapatnam, Dec 9 (IANS) In yet another nail-biting contest, Telugu Titans held their nerves to pip Haryana Steelers 35-31 at the jam-packed Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium here on Sunday night.Nilesh Salunke's last-minute super raid gave Titans a much-needed victory. Salunke ended up with 7 points but it was Rahul Chaudhari who top-scored for Titans with 12 points.Titans' defence laid the foundations for their win as they forced as many as six super tackles.Monu Goyat rallied Haryana Steelers remarkably in the second-half and earned 12 points but they just fell short.Nilesh and Rahul got a raid point each to give Telugu Titans 3-1 lead after two minutes. Haryana Steelers scored three straight points to lead 4-3 after four minutes. Monu scored his second point of the match to give Haryana Steelers 7-5 lead in the sixth minute.Telugu Titans forced two super tackles in two minutes to lead 11-8 after 10 minutes. The super tackles galvanised Haryana as they scored seven straight points to lead 14-8.Things got better for Telugu Titans as they inflicted an all-out in the 15th minute to lead 18-9. At the end of the first-half, Telugu Titans led 20-13.The second-half started brightly for Haryana Steelers as Monu scored three points in two minutes to reduce the deficit to 4 points. On two occasions, Haryana Steelers came close to inflicting an all-out but Telugu Titans' resolute defence denied them.Two more super tackles followed for the Titans as they led 29-21 after 25 minutes.With less than five minutes to go Haryana, gave themselves a glimmer of hope as they inflicted an all-out to trail 25-29. Two more raid points for Monu Goyat meant that Steelers were trailing by just one point after 37 minutes.Steelers sent Rahul back to the bench but he picked up a bonus as the scores were level at 30-30. Vishal forced a super tackle in the 40th minute to earn two more points for Titans.Nilesh made a super raid in the dying seconds of the match to lead Titans to 35-31 win.
--IANS kk/nir