New Delhi: Telugu Titans denied U Mumba a chance to go top of the league as the beat them 35-30 to end their home leg with a vital victory. Nilesh Salunke and Rahul Chaudhry came up with good raiding performances and scored eight points each to lead their team to victory. U Mumba’s Rakesh Kumar scored 11 points but his effort wasn’t enough as Telugu Titans ran out comfortable winners.

Telugu Titans remained in sixth position with 14 points from six games. U Mumba salvaged one point as they managed to cut the margin to less than seven points as they occupy fourth position with 17 points after six games.

Telugu Titans got their first tackle point and sent Rishank Devadiga to the bench in the third minute. U Mumba opened their account with a raid in 5th minute. Devadiga got on court and scored his first raid point in the fifth minute as U Mumba trailed 2-3. Titans star raider Rahul Chaudhry failed with his first five raids whereas Anup Kumar also was unsuccessful with his first four raids for U Mumba. Telugu Titans led 6-4 after nine minutes as their defence did a fine job on U Mumba raiders. After 12 minutes, the Telugu Titans led 8-6 and the teams traded tackle points. Anup Kumar had one point for U Mumba and Rahul Chaudhry too struggled to score and ended the first half with one point. Nilesh Salunke scored two points in the 18th minute as Telugu Titans led 12-9 at the end of first half.

Rahul Chaudhry began the second half with a bang and scored two points with in the first minute of the second half. Rakesh Kumar scored with a super raid to cut the lead to 12-14 but Nilesh Salunke scored two points and Telugu Titans inflicted an all out to lead 19-13. Rahul Chaudhry came back after an injury score to score his fourth raid point and Telugu Titans led 21-14. Chaudhry was in stellar form as Telugu Titans inflicted another all out in 27th minute as they led 28-16. Salunke continued to pile raid points with another two-point raid as Telugu Titans led 31-17 after 30 minutes. But Suresu Kumar scored two points as U Mumba trailed 19-31. Any hopes of a U Mumba comeback were thwarted as Telugu Titans adopted a cautious approach in the last minutes. Anup Kumar scored two points in the last minute and inflicted an all out to cut the deficit to five points but Telugu Titans held on in the end to win 35-30.