Pro Kabaddi: Ajay Thakur’s late heroics help Tamil Thalaivas overpower U Mumba 38-35

TAMIL THALAIVAS ended U Mumba’s Super Playoffs hopes by defeating the Mumbai side 38-35 in a closely contested game at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Tuesday. Ajay Thakur was once again the star of the night finishing with 15 raid points and one important tackle point.

The teams exchanged points early on but Thakur and K. Prapanjan got the better of the U Mumba defence and took a 4-1 lead in the 5th minute. Without their main raiders Anup Kumar and Kashiling Adake, the U Mumba offence looked shaky early on and the team was on the brink of an All-Out in the 8th minute itself.

However, U Mumba’s last man on the mat Darshan Kadian pulled off a brilliant super raid and the defenders then backed up his efforts with a super tackle to give their team an 8-7 lead. U Mumba turned it around from there to inflict an All-Out on Tamil Thalaivas through some smart defending. Surinder Singh was exceptional on the night but without much support for Kadian in attack U Mumba could only take a 3-point lead in the first half at 18-15.

U Mumba consolidated in the second half as Surinder reached his High 5 and substitute Mohan Raman G, who was finally given a look-in, also returned with a successful raid to put their team 21-15 ahead. Thakur put up a fight to bring U Mumba down to 3 men but Mumbai’s tacklers came up with another super tackle to keep the Thalaivas from inflicting their first All-Out of the night. Thakur kept the scoreboard ticking for the Thalaivas and soon reached his Super 10, reducing U Mumba to 3 players in the process. Tamil Thalaivas finally inflicted an All-Out on U Mumba in the 16th minute and reduced the deficit to just 1 point with the scoreline reading 29-30.

The Thalaivas soon drew level at 33-33 with just 2 minutes left and then took the lead through an aggressive tackle on Shrikant Jadhav by youngster C. Arun. The Thalaivas defence struck again from there but Mohan Raman G once again scored when his team needed him to take back 2 points in his raid and get his team level at 35-35.

In the closing minutes though Thakur proved once again why he is considered one of the best raiders in the league as he won the game for his side with a 2-point raid. Kadian tried to get his team back in his last raid but Thakur got the better of him and took his side to a 38-35 victory.

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