Dabang Delhi Edge Out Puneri Paltan to Score First Win in Pro Kabaddi League

Dabang Delhi notched up their first victory in the Pro Kabaddi League after staving off a fine fight back from Puneri Paltan for a 35-31 verdict on day three of the tournament at the NSCI Stadium on Monday.

Delhi started off in blazing fashion by packing off their Pune rivals for an all-out and two extra points within the first three minutes.

They then led 21-9 with five minutes of the first half play left before the losers pulled up and the period ended with the winners leading 22-15.

Pune fought back very well in the second half mainly through some brilliant raiding by Jitesh Joshi (8 points).

24-year-old Surjeet Narwal (13 points) from Haryana came up with excellent raids right through the game to keep Delhi ahead after their rivals narrowed the lead to 28-29 with seven minutes left in the game.

Kashiling Adake, the popular Delhi raider, contributed 5 points.

For Pune, who suffered their second straight defeat after loss to Bengaluru Bulls, captain Wazir Singh contributed 8 points.

Pune's second half fight back began when they got a 'lona' after packing off all seven players of the rival team which got them two extra points.

In raids, the tally was almost equal with only one point separating the two teams but Delhi's points tally with tackles (10) exceeded Pune's (7) that ultimately made the difference.

Delhi had also lost to the Bulls in their tournament opener.

Later, hosts U Mumba were held to a thrilling 35-35 draw by Telugu Titans who were playing their first game of the tournament.

The Mumbai team led almost throughout but the Titans fought back brilliantly to hold them to a draw. Shabeer Bapu Sharfudeen once again led the Mumbai team with 10 points while Anup Kumar got 9. For the Andhra franchise, Rahul Chaudhari (12) and Sukesh Hegde (7) were the top raiders.

The Titans were ahead by two points during raids (24 to 22), while Mumbai were the better team in tackles and gained 9 points to their rivals' 7.

The Titans also packed off their rivals twice to gain four points while Mumbai got one 'lona' and two points during the game.

It was Mumbai's second win in three games and they led the table with 13 points with the Bengaluru Bulls standing second three points adrift of the leaders.

Titans were fourth with three points following the drawn game.