Star Sports Pro Kabaddi: 5 talking points from the Mumbai leg
The final leg of the Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) Season 3 witnessed some dazzling display ofkabaddi throughout the four days of action at the NSCI Stadium in Mumbai. Defending champions UMumba stamped their authority once again as they thoroughly dominated all their opponents, whileBengal Warriors and Puneri Paltan will be making their debut in the Round of 4.As the PKL now moves on to the knock-out rounds, we take a look at the highlights from the recently-concluded Mumbai leg. Here are its five biggest talking points:
#1 U Mumba top the table
“It is not how you start but how you finish that matters,” Sachin Tendulkar once said. The defending PKL champions U Mumba seem to have taken a leaf out of the legendary cricketer’s book.
The Anup Kumar-led outfit did not start their title defense in the best way, slumping to two defeats in their first four matches. They were even handed a crushing 26-40 defeat by the Patna Pirates in the early going. But that was the last time that Bhaskaran Edachery’s men lost a match.
They are currently riding a sizzling run of 10 consecutive wins, which also included a 34-28 defeat of none other than the Pirates. With such a staggering performance, the U Mumba franchise also usurped the top spot in the 2016 league table from the Pirates.
Much to the delight of the crowd, U Mumba maintained their clean sheet at home in the league phase; they still haven't lost a single league encounter at the NSCI through the three seasons. What has been most remarkable about this team is how well the different team members have coordinated amongst themselves, with each playing his role efficiently. While Anup Kumar, Rakesh Kumar and Rishank Devadiga lead their attack expertly, they have Fazel Atrachali and Mohit Chhillar to man their box with assurance and panache.
U Mumba have clearly set the benchmark for the rest of the teams, and Bengal Warriors now have the near-impossible task of conjuring some magic to topple the defending champions in the semi-final on Friday.