Pro Kabaddi: U Mumba beat Dabang Delhi 36-22, hand them third loss 

U MUMBA won the battle of metropolises as they beat Dabang Delhi 36-22 in their third game of the season. The Mumbai outfit appeared to have learned from mistakes made in the previous games as they handed Delhi their third consecutive defeat.

The Mumbai franchise took very little time to express their dominance in the game. While their defenders performed notebook stuff, star raiders Anup Kumar and Shabeer Bappu inflicted the first All Out of the game after the ninth minute to establish a 10-2 lead. U Mumba’s defence in Surinder Singh, Joginder Narwal and Suresh Kumar kept denying Delhi’s in-form raider Anand Patil any raid points as the youngster tried to lead their attack in absence of skipper Meraj Sheykh.

Anand led Delhi’s fightback in the final minutes of the first half to post a 14-8 score. Mumbai, who had just three players on the mat at the start of the second half, found a trump card in N. Renjith as the debutant executed a single handed Super Tackle with a strong body dash on Meraj Sheykh. Subsequently, Renjith made two more crucial successful tackles in the game. 

Following ace corner defender Nilesh Shinde’s High 5 and R Sriram’s successful dubki, Delhi seemed to launch a comeback. However, their dreams were cut short by Anup Kumar as the calm and composed skipper scored a super raid. Thereafter, U Mumba inflicted another All Out on Dabang Delhi score the 16th minute in the second half. Although Kashiling Adake had a subdued night, Mumbai had no trouble whatsoever in extending their lead to 36-22 before the final whistle.

U Mumba starting 7:

Raider: Shabeer Bappu 
Defender: D. Suresh Kumar
All Rounder: Kuldeep Singh
Raider: Kashiling Adake
Raider: Anup Kumar
Defender: Surinder Singh 
Defender: Joginder Narwal

Substitutes:

All Rounder: Hadi Oshtorak
Raider: Nitin Madane 
Raider: Shrikant Jadhav
Defender: N. Renjith
Raider: Darshan Kadian

Dabang Delhi starting 7:

Raider: Anand Patil
Defender: Bajirao Hodage
Defender: Viraj Vishnu Landge
Raider: Shubham Ashok Palkar 
Raider: R. Sriram 
Defender: Nilesh Shinde
Defender: Sunil

Substitutes:

All Rounder: Meraj Sheykh
All Rounder: Vishal  
All Rounder: Tapas Pal
Raider: Yatharth
Defender: Swapnil Shinde

Le Panga:

Anup Kumar: The India skipper showed why he is regarded as the epitome of composure. Anup spent a lot of his time on the mat and controlled the tempo by giving directions to his teammates. The veteran raider scored a Super raid at a crucial juncture in the game, to put his side back in the comfort zone. Apart from pulling a successful tackle, Anup scored six points from 12 raids. 

No Panga:

Kashiling Adake: It was yet another disappointing night for the second highest raider in the league. Kashiling spent a good part of the match on the bench courtesy of unsuccessful raids. The youngster repeatedly took part in do-or-die raids and failed to make the most of it. Out of five raids, Kashiling was unsuccessful in four. 

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