In yet another key match amidst the race for playoffs in the Pro Kabaddi League Season 8, Haryana Steelers recorded an impressive 37-26 win over U Mumba on Sunday with the Steelers deploying a brilliant strategy to often take out the most potent weapon of the opposition, U Mumba skipper Fazel Atrachali.
The Iranian veteran was coming off an amazing performance the day before, having scored 8 points in the previous match for his team. But on Sunday, he managed just one point and was eliminated several times by Haryana’s raiders.
Vikash Kandola once again starred for his team as he notched up another Super 10 and ended up with 14 points. He received ample support from Ashish who also chipped in with 10 raid points.
Fazel Atrachali attempts to tackle Vikash Kandola during Match 113 of PKL 8
The match started off with Kandola getting two successful raids under his belt and then getting tackled by Atrachali. However, the U Mumba captain was soon consigned to the bench when he was eliminated by Ashish. After a brief revival, Fazel was back on the bench, this time becoming a victim of Meetu. This set the tone for the rest of the match as the Iranian struggled to assert himself.
In the twelfth minute of the match, U Mumba was down to just three men on the mat and all of them were taken out by Kandola in one super raid to inflict an all-out upon the Season 2 champions.
U Mumba then staged a brief revival through Abhishek Singh, as he strung together some points. With around three minutes left in the first half, the lead for the Steelers was down to just two points.
At the same time, there was also the danger of an all-out looming over Haryana as they were down to just two men on the mat. Luckily for them, Ashish saved them from an all-out with a successful raid. Going into half-time, Haryana was leading 18-13 but they again had just one man remaining on the mat.
This solitary player was removed by Abhishek in the very first raid of the second half to get the score to 18-16 but the fortunes of the Mumbai outfit’s captain, Fazel, didn’t improve as he was again tagged and remained on the bench for a long period of time.
Kandola now contributed even in the defensive scheme of things when he ousted U Mumba’s raider V Ajith through a brilliant ankle hold. With 10 minutes remaining in the match, the score was 24-21 in Haryana’s favor. However, things just kept getting worse for the Mumbai-based side as two consecutive errors by their defenders helped in increasing Haryana’s lead.
Vikash got another multi-point raid adding two points to his tally reducing the number of players for Mumbai on the mat as they were down to just one man with less than two minutes remaining.
The game was out of the grasp of Fazel & Co. when they suffered their second all-out of the game. The final score read 37-26 and a dejected U Mumba side walked off the mat.
With this win, Haryana is now sitting on the third spot in the points table and has significantly improved its chances to qualify for the playoffs. U Mumba, now at seventh place, just cannot afford to keep losing matches in a similar manner if they want to be in the reckoning for another PKL title.