Pro Kabaddi 2019: Puneri Paltan loses to U Mumba in Maharashtra Derby
Mumbai, 27th July 2019: Puneri Paltan, one of the top performing teams of the Vivo Pro Kabaddi League lost to U Mumba in Maharashtra Derby at the opening match of the Mumbai home at the NSCI stadium. Gracing the event was Indian Cricket team Captain Virat Kohli who shared his Kabaddi moments. Kohli enjoyed the match and was seen cheering the teams.
On the match front, U Mumba commenced their home leg at NSCI Stadium and it couldn’t have been better than a Maharashtra Derby to start with. Anup Kumar faces his old side as he comes back as the coach of Puneri Paltan. A strong performance by Surjeet Singh was overshadowed by his rivals as Fazel Atrachali, Surinder Singh and Sandeep Narwal were threat to Puneri Paltan.
Both the teams went for the defensive plan with Fazel Atrachali and Surjeet Singh taking the call. They played the match on Do-Or-Die Raids with both teams finding picking the crucial points. This made the first half to be low scoring but equally intriguing half with patience playing the major hand. The first spring of electric action came in the 4th minute as Shubham Shinde caught a napping Abhishek Singh returning to his half of the court which helped Pune take the lead by 2-3. It was a constant close call to tip the match on one side.
Puneri Paltan started the second half with just two men on the mat and U Mumba starting the half with the raids. Pune brought in Sushant Sail to get some pace in the mat which he duly provided as he caught both defensive experts of U Mumba as he got Fazel Atrachali and Surinder Singh in successive raids.
The 37th moment caught the Sushant Sail turn towards his half in the raid to find the mighty Sandeep Narwal with a block to make the score line 31-21. The match ended with U Mumba topping their rivals Puneri Paltans by 33-23.
Puneri Paltan to play their next match against Bengal Warriors on 29th July 2019