Telugu Titans, on Thursday (September 4), finally got off the mark in PKL 2025 with an impressive win over Jaipur Pink Panthers at the Vishwanadh Sports Club in Vizag. After losing their first two games, the home side opened their account by registering a 37-32 victory.
Captain Vijay Malik impressed once again as he scored eight points while raider Bharat Hooda also scored eight points. Ajit Power clinched a High Five as well to power Telugu Titans to their first win of the season.
For Pink Panthers, Nitin Kumar Dhankar scored 13 points but his effort was not enough to secure a victory for his side. The defeat was the first of the season for the Jaipur-based franchise. Earlier, they had started their campaign with a hard-fought win over last year’s runners-up Patna Pirates.
PKL 2025: Telugu Titans open account
No teams managed to gain a clear upper hand in the early stage although Telugu Titans managed to take a slender 7-5 lead. Bharat stood out with his impressive raids early on. He dismissed Ronak Singh and Meetu in a two-point strike before coming up with another successful raid that dismissed Sahil Satpal.
With the Pink Panthers on the backfoot, Nitin Rawal came up with a fine Super Tackle on Bharat to help his team gain some much-needed momentum. However, Telugu Titans steal managed to stay on the front foot and stamped their authority by inflicting an all out in the 13th minute.
At half time, Telugu Titans had raced away to a commanding 16-9 lead to put themselves in the driver’s seat. The Pink Panthers tried all they could to claw their way back into the game after the game restarted. Nitin Kumar led the charge for the two-time champions as he struck with back-to-back raids to dismiss Chetan Sahu and Avi Duhan.
Reza Mirbagheri also impressed in defence by pinning down Malik and Bharat to revive Pink Panthers’ hopes. However, Telugu Titans’ defenders continued to dominate as they produced an important Super Tackle through Ajit Pawar that halted Ali Samadi’s raid. By the half-hour mark, the Titans had taken a commanding 23-16 lead.
The Pink Panthers were also in no mood to give up yet. Nitin continued his impressive raids as he dismissed Amir Ejlali before skipper Nitin Rawal got Vijay Malik to help the Pink Panthers inflict an all out. Nitin then went on to complete his Super 10 towards the end of the match with a multi-point raid that reduced the deficit to three points.
However, Malik came up with a Super Raid to put the game to the bed and power his team to its first win of the tournament.
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