PKL 2017: Telugu Titans crush Tamil Thalaivas 57-38 in inter-zone round

Chennai, Oct 4: Telugu Titans crushed Tamil Thalaivas to hand them their fourth straight home loss at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium and registered a comprehensive 58-37 win on Tuesday (October 3).

Rahul Chaudhari, Mohsen Maghsoudlou and Nilesh Salunke picked up a Super 10 each to completely overshadow Ajay Thakur's 20-point performance.

The southern derby started with Chaudhari picking up the first point for the Titans followed by K Prapanjan for the Thalaivas.

The first major action of the half was initiated by Thakur through a super raid in the 5th minute but thereafter everything went downhill for the hosts.

The Titans answered back with a super tackle and Salunke's super raid in the span of a minute to push the Thalaivas to the brink of an All-Out.

With Chaudhari's back-to-back raids, the hosts fell to their first All-Out in the 9th minute to hand the visitors a 16-8 lead by the end of the first quarter.

Chaudhari continued his onslaught on the frail Thalaivas defence. Maghsoudlou and Chaudhari's two-point raids in quick succession handed the Thalaivas their second All-Out in the 15th minute.

Even amidst a dismal show from the hosts where they failed to pick up a single tackle point, Thakur managed to complete his Super 10 in the 16th minute. The half ended with the Titans leading 30-15.

The Titans continued their dominance into the second half with Chaudhari quickly completing his Super 10. Within two minutes, the Thalaivas disappointingly fell for their third All-Out to give the Titans a 21-point lead.

Thakur continued his lone battle against a fervent Titans defence, and the hosts also managed to pick up their first tackle point as late as the 28th minute to enter the last 10 minutes trailing 20-41.

With 21 points separating the two teams, the Thalaivas changed their strategy and enforced do-or-die raids to put pressure on the Titans raiders while picking up quick raid points themselves.

Soon, they handed the Titans their first All-Out in the 36th minute to reduce the deficit. But the visitors weren't done yet. In the final minutes, both Maghsoudlou and Salunke completed Super 10s to initiate the Thalaivas' fourth All-Out and end the match with a commanding 58-37 win.