Mumbai: U Mumba got their home leg off to a rollicking start as they earned a commanding 40-35 win over Bengaluru Bulls in their Pro Kabaddi League Season 10 match at the DOME by NSCI in Mumbai.
U Mumba’s Bittu, making his PKL debut, impressed with 6 tackle points.
Buoyed by a boisterous home crowd, U Mumba went all guns blazing from the first raid and inflicted an All-Out as early as the 7th minute. Guman Singh and Amirmohammad Zafardanesh picked points at will and the U Mumba defence was rock-solid as Bittu’s tackle on Aman put them ahead 11-3.
Bengaluru Bulls were forced to play catch up thereon. Their first tackle point came only in the 11th minute and that summed up their defensive show as they struggled to contain U Mumba’s three-pronged raiding unit.
Bulls’ ace raider Bharat was unable to find any rhythm and Vikash Kandola offered some hope but failed to capitalize on numerous chances to inflict an All-Out on U Mumba. The home team
played with three men for nearly 5 minutes but held on to go into the break with a 19-10 lead.
U Mumba extended their lead early into the second half as Zafardanesh’s multi-point raid reduced the Bulls to two men. Sushil came off the bench to the Bulls’ rescue and scored 6 quickfire points and Aman claimed a Super Tackle, but it still wasn’t enough to stop U Mumba from grabbing a second All-Out. With 12 minutes left, the hosts sat pretty at 28-18.
U Mumba brought on a couple of players from the bench for the remainder of the match as they dominated proceedings. Bittu, who replaced Rinku in the U Mumba line-up, trapped Bharat with
a fine tackle to claim a High 5.
Bulls’ veteran defender Surjeet Singh then produced a moment of magic towards the end of the
game as he outwitted three defenders to execute the first Super Raid of the match. Incidentally,
this was also the first Super Raid of Surjeet’s PKL career.
Sachin Narwal followed it up with another sublime Super Raid and U Mumba had just two men left
on the mat. The Bulls went on to bag an All-Out in the final raid of the match, but it wasn’t enough to erase the deficit as U Mumba clinched their fifth win on the trot.
