Can Dabang Delhi get their first win of the season against defending champions U Mumba?
Dabang Delhi K.C. take on U Mumba later tonight as they look to register their first win of the season and get their Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League campaign up and running. The defending champions have already played two matches so far and have split them, winning against Telugu Titans in their opener and losing to Jaipur Pink Panthers in their second match.
Delhi will look to come out all guns blazing to avoid the slow starts they have been experiencing all through this season so far. They will also have learnt a lot from their 38-20 loss to Puneri Paltan in the previous match and would look to right the wrongs of the last match tonight. The last match saw a slightly subdued performance from the team in general, but Kashiling Adake still gave it all, finishing with 5 points.
The Delhi side's reserves did quite well, with Seong Ryeol Kim, the Korean import, gaining 3 attack points on his raids, in what was his first appearance in this season in the Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League. He showed that he is ready when called upon and the team will take a lot from the bench's effort against Puneri Paltan.
With the team going up against champions U Mumba, they will have their task cut out, especially the raiders Kashiling Adake and Surjeet Singh (Narwal), who have been the Delhi outfit's major weapons. They will need to be careful against the likes of Surinder Nada and Mohit Narwal in the Mumbai defence, who form one of the stingiest defensive units in the tournament.
Ravinder Pahal, the captain of the Dabangs from Delhi, will have to show his true mettle tonight and ensure that he, along with the other defenders, shut out the U Mumba raiders, especially captain Anup Kumar and Rakesh Kumar.
The team from Mumbai generally look to score touch points and then establish a defensive stranglehold over their opponents to get a comfortable victory. The Eagles need to ensure that they don't let the Ronnie Screwvala-owned outfit settle down and to do that, they need to establish their dominance very early into the match.
The last encounter between these two teams last season saw the U Mumba side winning 27-22, with substitute Bhupender Singh coming off the bench to score 7 points and providing the spark.
Match details:
The match between Dabang Delhi and U Mumba is the 1st match of the day, and will start at 8 pm Indian time.