Pro Kabbadi: Thalaivas fumble on opening day

It was a nightmare for Tamil Thalaivas as they tasted defeat by Puneri Paltan on the opening day of the home leg here in the city.

Puneri Paltans managed to get past Tamil Thalaivas with a 33-20 score line. The Tamil Nadu Kabaddi fans were in for a shock as the veteran defender Dharmaraj Cheralathan failed to make it to the starting seven for Puneri Paltan.

There was not much of a difference between the two sides during half time. The scores were locked up at 12-11 with the home team taking the lead. 

A five point raid from the skipper Deepak Hooda turned the game around and thrust Pune team to a comfortable seven points lead with ten minutes remaining on the clock. 

Ajay Thakur led Thalaivas couldn’t pull things back post this. The Paltan’s defence kept their shape not letting the Thalaivas  crawl back into the contest.

“We couldn’t recover from the blow we received after the five point raid by Deepak Hooda. Nothing went as per plan after that. We desperately wanted to win this encounter for the fans but we feel disappointed for not getting off to a winning start.”, said Thalaivas’ coach Baskaran.