VVS Laxman was there with his son and daughter as they cheered for Telugu Titans. (Source: pro Kabaddi)
Telugu Titans couldn’t give their fans a winning send off on Sunday but they did the home crowd did get a plenty of reasons to cheer. Patna Pirates ran away to a 15-point lead in the second half and also breached the 40-point mark. But the Titans fought back and every point that they took was cheered raucously by the crowd at Gachibowli crowd.
Sitting in that crowd was a ‘Very Very Special’ resident of Hyderabad. Batting great VVS Laxman had decided to attend the match which was the last one this at Hyderabad. Laxman was there with his son and daughter. He was clearly supporting the Titans and so were his kids. But while the latter jumped and screamed with every point they scored, a smile and a few claps were the most you could get out of Laxman during the match.
Laxman is not the first cricketer to have come to the Gachibowli stadium. Just a week ago, his longtime India team mate Sachin Tendulkar was in the stadium. But while Laxman was there only as a spectator, Tendulkar was present in the capacity of a team owner. He co-owns Tamil Thalaivas, one of the four new teams in the league this season. More over, Tamil Thalaivas are the only team so far this season to have suffered a loss at the hands of the Telugu Titans. Rahul Chaudhari was in top form that day, scoring a Super-10 and leading his team to a 32-27 victory.
He was in top form on Thursday too but this was after four consecutive defeats. He scored a Super 10 yet again but the Titans’ shoddy defensive setup gave away too many points to Patna Pirates. At one point, the Pirates enjoyed a 15-point lead. But Chaudhari kept pushing and reduced that deficit to seven points. In the end, the score stood at 36-43 in favour of Patna Pirates. It was the fifth consecutive defeat for Telugu Titans. Considering their form leading up to this match, a win did seem inevitable even before the match started. Laxman’s presence, hence could not help them avoid the inevitable.
