Implementing weeks of practice, preparation and attempt to experiment with new faces was what Dabang Delhi aimed to do as they kicked off their season opener against Telugu Titans! The players came up with individual performances and flashes of brilliance as Telugu Titans emerged as the better team on the day as they won 36-27 in the opening match against Dabang Delhi in their first encounter. Dominant from the outset, the team from Vishakapatnam brought their A game to the table.

With Titans’ star raider and captain Rahul Chaudhuri accounting for Kashiling Aadke with the 1st raid of the match and Deepak Vilas Hooda getting the better of Jasmer Gulia soon afterwards, we were put on the spot. However, immediately Rohit Kumar got us off the mark, thus scoring our first points of the season.

The two Iranians in their team - Meraj Sheykh & Hadi Oshtorak combined brilliantly too and provided them with stability in defense which was at its astute best as we got all out twice (once in each half).

Needless to say, Surjeet Narwal was missed dearly but as head coach Honnappa pointed out, we should be able to cope with that and bounce back and that is what the boys did in the 2nd half as we bridged the differences.

Also Honappa is a proven manager at this level, regardless of whether or not people approved of his methods today, and it would be disingenuous not to point out that there were positives for us in the game: Kashi’s raiding, Ravinder’s calmness under pressure and Jasmer’s defending in patches. All we need now is for the aforementioned to come good together and it shouldn’t take us long to make our mark on the points table.

Roll of honour from post match awards ceremony: