U Mumba tied with the Haryana Steelers 24-24 in the 32nd match of the Pro Kabaddi League Season 8. Haryana Steelers are now ranked 6th in the standings while U Mumba slips a position to 4th.
In the first raid of the match, Rinku Hari pulled off a solo tackle on Rohit Gulia and U Mumba got off the mark. Both the teams analyzed the opponent’s defense and raided for a longer duration of time in the first 5 minutes.
U Mumba and Haryana Steelers were on level terms till the 10th minute of the match with the scores tied at 5-5. U Mumba reduced the Steelers to just 3 men but the Steelers came back with a 2-point successful raid.
Both the teams were cautious and dragged the match to do-or-die raids on most occasions. For Haryana, Vikas Khandola was unsuccessful thrice and that affected the raiding department. Haryana ended the first half with 5 men on the mat but a slender lead of 12-10 over their opponents. The Steelers had managed to keep the dangerous raiding duo of V Ajith Kumar and Abhishek Singh quiet in the first half.
Till the half-time whistle, U Mumba had contrasting fortunes in the offence and defence. While they had a raid success rate of just 21% but the Fazel Atrachali-led defense managed a success rate of 70% when tackling and the reason was the patience among the orange outfit.
Abhishek Singh started off the second installment of the match with a successful raid and reduced the lead to just a solitary point but the Steelers restored the lead with a bonus point.
Fazel Atrachali was on the mat until the last raid of the match
Three minutes into the second half, Surender Nada pulled off a back hold on Abhishek Singh on a do-or-die raid. In the following raid, which was do-or-die for the Steelers, raid the corner combination of Mohsen Maghsoudlou and Rinku Hari tackled Meetu Mahender.
With 10 minutes to go, U Mumba and Haryana Steelers were on level terms at 15-15 and both the teams had deliberately slowed down the pace of the match with the Haryana Steelers down to just a couple of men on the mat.
followed by an unsuccessful raid by substitute Rajesh Narwal, V Ajith Kumar raided successfully helping U Mumba inflict the first all-out of the match on the Steelers and grab a 3-point lead.
The Steelers didn’t let the U Mumba build on the momentum and with a couple of minutes to play in the encounter, the Steelers were trailing by just one point at 21-22. U Mumba had just three men on the mat.
The Iranian duo of Maghsoudlou and Atrachali was superb and had a tackle success rate of 50% and 80% respectively. The duo didn’t blink until the penultimate minute where they committed mistakes in consecutive raids to gift 3 points to the Steelers.
U Mumba will face the Telugu Titans next while the Haryana Steelers will lock horns with defending champions Bengal Warriors.