There is no stopping U Mumba, 8 consecutive wins
NOTHING SEEMS TO BE GOING WRONG for U Mumba in Season 2 of Star Sports Pro Kabaddi. Today at the Gachibowli Stadium they scripted their eighth straight victory in their usual fashion by beating Dabang Delhi 29-25. It was an inspired show from their ‘captain cool’, Anup Kumar who shepherded his side towards the end with his calculated empty raids that ate valuable time.
He had earlier put his side ahead 25-20 with the help of the do-or-die raid specialist Rishank Devadiga, after Mumba trailed for most of the match. It was a memorable day for him as he also crossed the 200 point mark as a raider.
Dabang Delhi after trailing initially at 9-10 managed to equalize and went on to score a ‘lona’ at the stroke of half-time. The tall raiding duo of star player Kashiling Adake and new inductee Dadaso Awad troubled the Mumba defence no end. Kashiling had 4 points with a bonus and Dadaso got 3 to do the bulk of scoring. In defence captain Ravinder Singh Pahal manning the right corner for Delhi was always a threat.
U Mumba decided not to field their premier raider Shabeer Bapu Sharfudeen. And although he is not in good form one felt his presence would have had some effect on the opponents. Finally all is well that ends well as always and Mumba came out unscathed.
The U Mumba defence came to life in the last ten minutes of the match. Probably inspired by rival captain Ravinder, both Jeeva Kumar and Vishal Mane effected tackle after tackle to take the game away from their opponents.
In the closing couple of minutes Jeeva caught Sandeep Tomar and Vishal like a wrestler and single handedly threw Kashiling Adake out of the arena to finish the contest with the score reading 28-22 in Mumba’s favour.
Speaking about his side’s fortunes in the post match press conference, Anup looked optimistic.
“I did not have the best game but it is encouraging to see the team perform even in those circumstances. I am very happy that the team has managed to string together so many victories. We hope to continue putting in similar performance and go on winning.”
The article was originally posted here
