Hyderabad, Nov 19 (IANS): Siddharth Desai was the star for the home side with 9 points, the Telugu Titans produced a fantastic performance to defeat U Mumba 32-26 and ended their 12-match losing streak in the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) Season 9.
Spurred on by their home fans, the Titans fought back from an early deficit to win the match held at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium here on Saturday.
U Mumba were off to a flyer in the early exchanges with Guman Singh and Kiran Magar leading the charge. And without much ado, the U-Mumba side kept the Titans at arms' length, holding on to the lead, especially with the defensive unit chipping in as well.
Midway through the first half, Guman got in a Super Raid, which further strengthened their dominance in the contest, even though Abhishek Singh was doing all he could with his raids for the Titans.
However, Siddharth Desai in attack and Ankit in defence started the fightback for the home side, squaring up scores with less than 3 minutes to go in the first half. Mohsen Maghsoudlou added more bite to the Titans' attack, but it was U Mumba who led by one point at the break, with the score reading 15-14.
The second half started slower than the first phase, with the early exchanges seeing a few empty raids.
Abhishek Singh gave the Titans the lead for the first time on the night, with 14 minutes left, giving the home fans something to cheer about. A Super Tackle from the U Mumba side on Abhishek though put them back in front with just over 10 minutes to go, in what was turning out to be a low-scoring game.
The contest see-sawed in the final stages as well, with the Titans inflicting an All-Out to take a three-point lead.
Thereafter, Parvesh Bhainswal and Vishal Bhardwaj cranked up the intensity in the final minutes as the Titans eventually picked up a victory, they were desperately looking for.