Telugu Titans were so close yet so far from the playoffs this season. Apparently, having one of the best defences in the competition they could not make it. They were almost on par with Haryana mostly, at times, even better than them, yet lost which could hurt them a lot. Having skillful and agile raiders like Rahul Chaudhari and Nilesh Salunke, not making to playoffs is a disservice to the talent they possess. At final blow of the whistle, they were staring at defeat 30-32 from the hands of Haryana Steelers.
Rahul Chaudhari and Nilesh Salunke – The Raider Duo
Rahul and Nilesh are two of the best raiders in the competition who are smart, agile and skillful in their own right and command respect. Rahul scored the maximum raid points for Telugu Titans with 11 out of 21 raid attempts, while Nilesh not just far behind scoring 10 points. Not to forget, Rahul reached the grand total of 700 points, the first to reach the mark creating history.
In total, these were 21 points out of entire 32 points the team scored which shows their dominance and contribution to the team. A mere 11 points were contributed by the other team members shows the dependency of the Titans on the above two.
It’s not a good sign for a team who has ambitions to go to playoffs. So, they were rightfully packed off by Haryana who possessed more team effort than the Titans. Except for Rohit Rana and Vishal Bharadwaj, the strong defenders in Titans, there weren’t much support from others. The disappointing bit is Titans had an overall five tackle points but they gave four extra points and raid points to Steelers.
Who is Wazir Singh?
Wazir Singh is a real contender for the man of the tournament of Haryana Steelers. He brought the team from the dumps and changed their momentum whenever he raided. Wazir single handedly matched the efforts of Rahul and Nilesh in the 1st half, to put them in the lead at 16-11. Deepak Kumar too contributed with handy points in the 1st half.
At do-or-die raids in the 2nd half, Wazir was so clinical and impressive he scored a point never letting the situation get the better of him. This shows his experience to handle pressure in tough situations even though Nilesh Salunke scored an all out against them at 27-27. Nilesh did his absolute best to take the game away from Haryana which he could have on an other day. Unfortunately, he was starring down at a man named Wazir, who wanted nothing but the ticket to playoffs for Haryana yesterday.
It was a tough fight between the both to outdo each other on successive raids for their teams. Wazir won it hands down in the end and even at the last few minutes, he wasted time in his raids making sure he does not give chance for Nilesh or Rahul to steal a point from Steelers. Though it’s unsporting, it shows his game awareness, to not risk at that juncture, with playoffs on the line when the score ended 32-30 in favor of Steelers. A real close finish could be the defence for Wazir’s unsporting behavior which he could claim?
Nevertheless it was a good game to watch.
