Pro Kabaddi: Gujarat Fortunegiants Beat Telugu Titans, Tamil Thaliavas Edge Jaipur Pink Panthers

Last season's runners-up Gujarat Fortunegiants on Monday came from behind to beat Telugu Titans 48-38 in Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) season 7 match at the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex in Greater Noida. Bottom-placed Tamil Thalaivas registered 35-33 victory over Jaipur Pink Panthers, the winners of the inaugural season. Gujarat's comeback was led by their raider Sonu who produced their best-ever raid performance in PKL history, scoring 17 points in the match. Sonu's heroics helped last year's runners-up finish their season on a high. Gujarat witnessed a see-saw campaign wherein they collected 51 points from 22 games as they won seven games and played out two draws. They lost 13 matches in the process.

Titans' Siddharth Desai had near-perfect first half with a 100 per cent success ratio in his seven raids while Rakesh Gowda also impressed in his raids.

The Titans clinched their first All-Out of the match in the seventh minute and dominated proceedings thereafter, with Akash Choudhary particularly impressive in their defence. The first half ended with the Titans leading 21-13.

Coach Manpreet Singh's words in the half time must have inspired the Gujarat men as they started the second half like a transformed side.

Sonu impressed in the raids for the Fortunegiants as they secured an All-Out in the second minute after restart to make it a three-point match.

Sonu picked up his Super 10 while this likes of GB More and Rohit Gulia also picked up their game.

Gujarat were able to convert their momentum to inflict another All-Out on the Titans with eight minutes remaining and take the lead for the first time.

Sonu's impressive night got even better when he picked up a massive four-point Super Raid with six minutes left in the match to give Gujarat a five-point cushion.

Gujarat secured another All-Out with less than three minutes to open an eight-point lead which helped them seal the match.

(With IANS inputs)