U Mumba nose ahead of Puneri Paltan in their last league encounter
27th August,2014, Bengaluru:
The first contest of the last day of the league stage of the Star Sports Pro Kabaddi was a battle for honour between semi-finalists U Mumba and the team placed at the bottom of the leader-board Puneri Paltan. Last time U Mumba and Puneri Paltan met in Delhi, the latter was thrashed by 16 points.
This time however it was a tighter competition with both the teams going for the kill, irrespective of the match being a dead rubber. A thrilling encounter, U Mumba won its last league game by one point.
Keeping the initial moments of the game very close, Pune’s captain led the charge ousting Anup Kumar in the second minute of the match. Evening out Pune’s one-point lead, a just-revived Anup executed an excellent tackle, capturing Wazir Shah. Mumbai’s joy though, was very short-lived as Wazir was revived in the very next raid when Pune’s Nitin More got two points off U Mumba, sending Mohit Chillar and Jeeva Kumar back to the dug-out.
The Mumbai Captain was quick to retaliate with a high-scoring raid ousting three Pune antis including Wazir Singh. By the 10th minute, thanks to a quick-fire raid by Surender Nada, Pune gave away the first set of LONA points to the Mumbai boys, escalating their lead to six-points. The Mumbai magic continues as they stepped up their defence overthrowing Kalimuthu Balamahendran and Jitesh Joshi one after the other.
A usually lethal Rishan Devadiga looked a tad ordinary as he got captured by Wazir Singh for the second time while raiding Pune’s side of the field. Unable to build up on their lead, U Mumba soon conceded their first LONA points in the last minute of the first half.
U Mumba sparked off the second half capturing Manoj Kumar in a tackle which was a testament to the spirit of team-work. Another reason to celebrate followed suit for the Mumbai boys as Rishank Devadiga got back to his winning ways, earning his team two points in a single raid. However, the Pune team decided not to give up, tying the scores at 25 in 26th minute.
With Pawan Kumar exiting the field for the fourth time in the match, U Mumba were left with just four men, fighting Pune’s six. Determined to narrow-down Mumbai’s two-point lead, the Puneri Paltan captain continued his brilliant form from the first half where he crossed the benchmark of a 100-raid points. With just 10 minutes to go, the two teams traded blows, keeping the scores a very tight affair.
With both teams determined not let the other get ahead, Puneri Paltan closed in on the lead, making it a tied score with just 10 seconds to go. Unfortunately for them, Mumbai had other plans as they captured Wazir Singh and won the match 35-36.