Bangalore Bulls avoided a late fight back from their southern rivals Titans Telugu Hyderabad to draw a thrilling 39-38 victory and into the final of the League for the NSCI Kabaddi Stadium in Mumbai on Friday. Putting on a very impressive show, both in attack and defense, the Bulls simply blew away his rivals after the first five minutes and ran away to a shock victory. But the Titans made a late surge to cut commanding 16-point lead the Bulls to a single point at which the captain of the winning team Manjeet Bullard made a successful raid and did 39-37
with the last seconds left.
The Titans have a point through successful effort in the last minute of Rahul Chaudhari down to the Bulls for the third time this season. When the Titans caught their opponents 4-4 after the fifth minute and then at 8, everything seemed like a good fight ensue. A foot injury to his rival counterpart Sheikh Meraj Iran at the start of the game was a big blow to the Titans and when he returned in the second half of the Bulls had taken firm control of the game. Then the Bulls simply moved away to lead 16-10 at halftime and then not take their foot off the pedal in the second half to take a 31-15 advantage commanding eight minutes left on the clock. The Titans slowly but surely reduced the deficit with some super approach before narrowly losing the race. The two outputs of all those who suffered proved very costly in the end. Captain Manjeet Chillar led the Bulls ahead by tallying 8 points and was well supported by his deputy Ajay Thakur (8) in the attack and an excellent approach for Dharmaraj Cheralathan (9 points, including 6 in the fight). For the Titans, Sandeep came back strongly in the second half to collect ten points, including six on defense, while Chaudhari raid secured 9 points. Deepak Hudda did his part in the attack and defense to harvest 6 points. Substitutes Rupesh Tomar, Baliyan Rohit Prashant Rai and helped the Titans make a fight again with some valuable points. “We have an excess of confidence, but we also knew we were going to win,” said the captain after the game Bulls Chillar. Later, last year’s finalists U Mumba beatings Patna Pirates 35-18 in the other semifinal to set up a title clash with the Bulls on Sunday. The winners took a commanding lead 22-6 at halftime in the one-sided clash.
