Pro Kabaddi League 2018, Match 61: U Mumba vs UP Yoddha, Player Ratings
Pro Kabaddi League 2018 saw the action begin in the Inter-Zonal Challenge Week as the home side U Mumba took on UP Yoddha at the NSCI Dome of the SVP Stadium in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
The first match of the day saw the Puneri Paltan take on Telugu Titans as the Titans won 28-25 courtesy a strong all-around performance on the mat.
U Mumba came into the match after two consecutive losses at home after the win on opening day of the home leg. U Mumba were defeated by the Gujarat Fortunegiants and Haryana Steelers but had taken the game down to the wire in both the matches and were undone by their nerves. Siddharth Desai has been their star man on the mat with his Super 10s retaining the green sleeve as the top raider this season so far. Fazel Atrachali and Dharmaraj Cheralathan have used their experience well on the mat guiding the defence and hoped for a better showing tonight. Surender Singh and Rohit Rana have manned the cover position for the side and hoped to avoid silly mistakes. Vinod Kumar has been a handy contributor in both the attacking and defensive units and started tonight along with Darshan Kadian, who replaced Rohit Baliyan in the lineup.
UP Yoddha had not won a single match in their last five encounters with two ties and three losses but still had a chance to go atop the Zone B standings. Rishank Devadiga, Prashant Kumar Rai and Shrikant Jadhav, one of the best raiding units in the league have failed to maintain a consistent level of form this season. Their defence has been a positive for them with Nitesh Kumar raking in the tackle points. Sachin Kumar has been a revelation as well with his ability to sneak in raid points in addition to the tackling efforts on the left corner. The experienced Jeeva Kumar had failed to get going so far but had the support of the reliable Narender in the cover position.
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After a strongly contested first half, U Mumba pulled away to a win after an all-round showing with Darshan Kadian and Surender Singh shining for the home side. U Mumba defeated the UP Yoddha with a 41-24 scoreline and got their second home leg win.
U Mumba
Fazel Atrachali - (7/10)
The U Mumba skipper had a quiet first half of the match as he was restrained in his tackle attempts. He managed to pick up his High 5 in the second half and achieved the mark of 200 tackle points in his Pro Kabaddi League career.
Dharmaraj Cheralathan - (4/10)
The veteran defender played on the right corner and did well to combine with Fazel Atrachali on the other end. He finished with a couple of tackle points and had a lot of assists as well.
Rohit Rana - (3/10)
The former Telugu Titans defender was a tad hasty with his tackle attempts giving away a couple of easy touch points to the UP Yoddha raiders. He did combine well with Surender Singh to execute chain tackles.
Surender Singh - (9/10)
The young cover defender was in superb form tonight and had an error-free match. He ended up with seven tackle points and was the joint top scorer for U Mumba tonight.
Siddharth Desai - (8/10)
The in-form raider of the U Mumba side was in good touch tonight but had a few mistakes as well giving away two Super Tackles to the UP Yoddha side. He finished with seven raid points tonight.
Darshan Kadian - (8.5/10)
Darshan Kadian got a start tonight and was the game-changer for U Mumba despite a poor first half that saw him score just one point. He cleaned out the entire UP Yoddha side with a stunning Super Raid to take the game away from the visitors.
Vinod Kumar - (4/10)
The handy all-rounder continued to contribute well for the U Mumba side. He finished with three points which included two tackle points and one raid point.