U Mumba was routed by Patna Pirates 43-23 in the 47th match of the Pro Kabaddi League Season 8 in the Sheraton Grand Convention Centre in Bengaluru on Tuesday.
The Patna Pirates were off to a blistering start as they opened their account with a super raid. The 3-time champions put in a couple of empty raids before skipper Prasanth Kumar Rai thwarted the U Mumba defenders in the 2nd minute.
U Mumba was all-out in the 6th minute of the match as the Pirates got the better of U Mumba’s defense in the first 5 minutes.
Post the first all-out, the U Mumba were poor in the raiding department as Abhishek Singh hadn’t fired in the encounter and V Ajith Kumar’s absence hurt the team. Ajith wasn’t named in the squad and the absence of their key raider had hurt U Mumba so far as Patna was leading 14-3 and had a definite advantage in the early stages of the match.
Ashish Sangwan pulled off a super tackle on the Patna Pirates as U Mumba picked 4 consecutive points to reduce the deficit to 8 points in the 15th minute of the match. Patna Pirates scored a couple of points as U Mumba was reduced to just three men on the field.
The first half ended with an eventful raid as Sachin failed to have a successful raid in a do-or-die situation. Harendra Kumar was self-out but as Rinku Hari pulled off a solo ankle hold with the half-time whistle blown at 19-9.
U Mumba had only 3 raid points in the first half of the match and key player Fazel Atrachali scored only a solitary point showing they were poor at both ends of the pitch.
Fazel Atrachali scored only a solitary point in this encounter
U Mumba was all-out in the second raid in the second half as Pirates continued their dominance. The major concern for U Mumba was the dominance by the Pirates raiders on Mohsen Maghsoudlou-led defense consisting of the Iranian defender Atrachali as well.
With 10 minutes to go, U Mumba was trailing 31-15 and was nowhere close to the Patna Pirates. Sultan Fazel picked up his 1st point in the 33rd minute of the match as U Mumba scored 3 consecutive points.
Patna was leading 33-20 but had just a couple of men on the field but they soon completed a turnaround as the season 2 champions lost two defenders as Patna extended the lead to 15 points and evaded the all-out with little more than 5 minutes to play.
Neeraj Kumar and Mohammadreza Shaudlou Chiyaneh scored high 5s as the Pirates registered a dominant victory.
In their next matches, U Mumba will face Puneri Paltan on Thursday while Jaipur Pink Panthers will clash with the Patna Pirates on Friday.