Pro Kabaddi League 2018: "It was an easy match for us as Delhi did not use their best players," says U Mumba coach Gholamreza Mazandarani after beating Dabang Delhi KC
Siddharth Desai's supreme run this season continued as the lanky raider notched up his eleventh 'Super 10' in this season, courtesy of his 12-point effort in U Mumba's dominating 44-19 win over Dabang Delhi KC at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Vishakapatnam on Tuesday.
PKL 2018 table toppers from Zone 'A', U Mumba made only one change to their team from the previous game as Darshan Kadian came in place of Rajguru Subramaniam. Delhi, on the other hand, made a host of changes as only Chandran Ranjith and Meraj Sheykh retained their places from their previous encounter against the Tamil Thalaivas.
With Delhi already having one foot in the qualifiers, the move to give a chance to the youngsters backfired severely as Shabeer Bappu, who led the side, finished with five points while Satpal on the right corner picked up a High-5.
U Mumba skipper Fazel Athrachali too found himself amongst the points as he notched up a comfortable 'HIgh-5', while Rohit Baliyan contributed on both fronts to finish with eight points from the game.
Such was U Mumba's dominance that Delhi were on the backfoot right from the first half and were hit by three all-outs right throughout the game.
In the press conference at the end of the game, U Mumba head coach Gholamreza Mazandarani singled out the reason for the win as the lack of strength in the Delhi line-up.
"I felt that the match was a little easy for us," he said, adding, "They did not use their best players and used young players mainly. We also played easy, but for us, the result and the points were more important and so we had to push for a big win".
Skipper Fazel Athrachali, who produced some moments of brilliance during the whole game, also finished with a 'High-5' and was a happy man at the end of the game.
"At the beginning of the season, I mentioned that we would have a great season. We started slow but the youngsters in the team have formed a great combination. 'Siddhu' (Siddharth Desai) has performed really well and we as a team are doing really well now".
Commenting on the massive 25-point win over Dabang Delhi, Fazel played it out as an advantage for them which was granted to them at the start by the lack of in-form players in the starting seven for Delhi.
"Delhi were not looking for points from this game. They have almost qualified while U Mumba and Gujarat Fortunegiants are the two teams fighting for the top spot. So they played the lesser-known players and we won by a big margin," as he signed off with a "Thank you Delhi!" in the end.