U Mumba pips Tamil Thalaivas 35-33 in a contest of two halves
U Mumba managed to beat Tamil Thalaivas by two points in Match 95 of the eighth edition of the Pro Kabaddi League. U Mumba was led by their star raider, Abhishek Singh, who bagged a ‘Super 10’ helping his side achieve the final scoreline of 35-33 in their favor. With the playoffs just around the corner, this victory will go a long way in propelling the Mumbai outfit to a top-six finish.
The encounter was a highly anticipated one as both teams had only one point to separate them in the points table before the contest started. The Tamil Thalaivas entered the match seeking their third win on the trot but were rattled by U Mumba’s relentless attacks early on.
U Mumba’s initial charge was led by Abhishek Singh who collected three successive raid points via running hand touches. The Thalaivas were not far behind, but a beautiful ankle hold by Fazel Atrachali brought down their main raider Manjeet.
Abhishek was ably supported by Ajith Kumar at this point, who furthered the lead with two successive points against his former team. Briefly, after this, Thalaivas mustered a super tackle and tried to close in on the lead with the scoreline now reading 7-5. Unfortunately, these were the last signs of any fightback from Surjeet’s men in the first half.
Thalaivas were handed their first all-out of the match, and U Mumba piled on the pain with successive raid and tackle points. Just when the Thalaivas thought things couldn’t get any worse for them, Abhishek bagged two more points and treated us to a breathtaking dive.
With not much time to go in the first half, Manjeet was sent back to the bench in a do-or-die raid. His counterpart, on the other hand, Abhishek put in a 3-point super raid and inflicted another all out on the Thalaivas.
The scoreline read 26-11 approaching the second half. U Mumba dominated with a clinical effort on all ends while the Thalaivas failed to put on an inspiring performance. With a fifteen-point lead, the Thalaivas needed something special.
Abhishek Singh gets tackled by the Thalaivas defense
The Thalaivas’ resurgence was led by Sagar, who tackled Abhishek in a super tackle situation. This was followed by a successful raid by Manjeet as the Thalaivas started chipping away at U Mumba’s lead. Ajinkya took a cue from this and took down two more defenders with the score now reading 28-21. With the first time-out of the second half fast approaching, U Mumba had only added four points to their tally while Thalaivas had garnered twelve crucial ones.
The Thalaivas tried to mount a comeback from behind but U Mumba’s skipper kept them at bay when he pounced on Manjeet again. The impeccable defense merely delayed the inevitable as the Thalaivas inflicted an all-out upon U Mumba, which changed the scorecard to 33-31.
With a do-or-die raid approaching, the Thalaivas ran out of gas as Fazel came out with a match-sealing ankle hold on Ajinkya. Thalaivas did exceedingly well in the second half but in the end, the eleven-point lead that U Mumba had earlier proved too much to negate for them.