Dabang Delhi 17-30 U Mumba; the Eagles outlasted by the reigning champions
Match 11 at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru saw defending champions U Mumba take on Dabang Delhi. The side from the national capital were looking for their first win of the campaign after a bad start, but it was not to be as they succumbed to a fourth loss in a row.
After a low-scoring start, the score stood at two points each for both sides at the five-minute mark. However, that was soon to change as the defending champions showed their class and pulled off a massive spree to garner a nine-point lead. Some rock solid defending by the Mumbai side combined with some expert raiding by Anup Kumar saw them all out the Dabang Delhi team and take the score to 11-2.
Following that, the Delhi team suffered another setback as their star raider Kashiling Adake had to be substituted due to a groin injury. They tried to stem the flow and make a comeback but U Mumba did not let the momentum swing. From 15-3 down, the Eagles did well to end the half at 16-7 as both sides defended well but only a solitary raid point in the opening 20 minutes saw the Delhi side trail by nine.
U Mumba were faster off the blocks in the second half as they picked up three points in a row thanks to a successful raid and two strong tackles. Dabang Delhi then picked up a treble of their own, two points out of which came from a fantastic raid by the now-fit Kashi and the scoreline now stood at 19-10.
After a successful tackle each, the Mumbai side put the game to bed with some intelligent raids by Anup and Rishank Devadiga and proceeded to skittle out their Delhi counterparts for the second time in the match. The seven Eagles returned to the mat, trailing by 16 points with the score reading 28-12.
Despite some uncharacteristic errors towards the end, the reigning champions saw out the remainder of the match and Delhi never came close to reducing the deficit to atleast seven points, which would have seen them salvage a point.
A 30-17 defeat is a hard pill to swallow for the Eagles, but they showed some promise in the last few minutes which bodes well for the next game. With the win, U Mumba made it two wins out of three so far this season.