Pro Kabaddi 2016 Season 4: 5 memorable moments from the first leg of Pro Kabaddi
The fourth season of Star Sports Pro Kabaddi is up and running and after the first leg of the fourth season, it is easy to decipher why the organisers decided to hold the glitzy tournament twice in a year. The decision seems to have received a unanimous thumbs up by viewers across the country as well as crowds that have poured in Mumbai to watch the matches.
The action on the mat has also lived up to the expectations of those in attendance as already the tournament has thrown up some exciting contests and some brilliant individual performances. The Kabaddi caravan will now travel northwards to the pink city of Jaipur, the home of Abhishek Bachchan-owned and season one winners Jaipur Pink Panthers.
But before more exhilarating performances pile on the ones that we witnessed in Mumbai, here is a recap of the 5 memories that the first leg of Pro Kabaddi Season 4 will be remembered forever:
1. Pune wins its first Maharashtra derby
Before this match against U Mumba, not many would have given Puneri Paltan a chance to beat the most consistent team in Pro Kabaddi history. In the six Maharashtra derbies between these teams, never did Puneri Paltan manage to come out on top.
Besides, they were facing U Mumba at Dome@NSCI SVP Stadium, which can be easily labelled as the home team’s fortress as they have never lost a league game at home and out of the 17 times they have played in front of their home crowd, only once they’ve been upstaged.
If not anything, U Mumba’s stellar reputation is enough to push teams a little on the backfoot. But all talks of reputation and home advantage came to naught as the actual home team stumbled to its biggest defeat in the history of the tournament. It also ended up conceding the bragging rights of an unbeaten streak in the Maharashtra derby.
Ajay Thakur and Manjeet Chillar were virulent against a U Mumba defence that was caught napping to help Pune win by a massive margin of 41-19.