Five magical moments on the mat from the Mumbai leg

The Mumbai leg of VIVO Pro Kabaddi Season 6 witnessed milestones, upsets and some startling moments that left the fans at the Dome@NSCI SVP Stadium gasping in disbelief as well as in euphoria. Here are the top 5 highlights of the Mumbai leg.

1. U Mumba turn the tides

After five legs, U Mumba finally managed to become the first team in Season 6 of VIVO Pro Kabaddi to finish their home leg on a note of success. After a victory in the opening match of their home leg, U Mumba succumbed to two successive defeats against Gujarat Fortunegiants and Haryana Steelers but bounced back to win a hattrick of games and finish their home leg with a record of 4 victories and two defeats.

2. Mahendra Rajput cleans the house

With his team trailing and the opposition defence dominating, coach Manpreet Singh sent in raider Mahendra Rajput to turn the tide in his side’s favour and the raider repaid his coach’s trust with an unbelievable effort. After somehow managing to escape the lethal grip of Fazel Atrachali’s hands, Rajput hustled and muscled and used his incredible wingspan to get his hands across the midline, but not before getting a touch on every U Mumba player left on the mat. That gave him five touch points and two more for the All Out, earning his team a total of seven points late in the game. That raid proved to be the killer blow for U Mumba in the match.

3. Vikash Khandola delivers big for Haryana Steelers

After winning three games in their opening 11 matches in VIVO Pro Kabaddi Season 6, Haryana Steelers needed a good result to keep their hopes of making it to the Playoffs alive. Raider Vikash Khandola stepped up for his team when it mattered and scored 29 raid points over two games to earn his side eight valuable points from those outings and help them close the gap on the team above them. Khandola managed to earn those 29 points at an incredible strike rate of 69.09 and that strike rate ballooned up to 100 in Do-Or-Die situations.

4. Fazel Atrachali’s double ton

Fazel Atrachali has been exemplary in his leadership of a defensively astute and an offensively potent U Mumba outfit in Season 6 and his own game has been at a world-class level throughout the campaign. The Left Corner leads all defenders in tackle points this season with 57 to his name and is doing it at a staggering strike rate of 67.05. The Iranian also created history in U Mumba’s match against U.P. Yoddha. With his fifth tackle point on the night, Atrachali became the first foreigner in the VIVO Pro Kabaddi to reach 200 tackle points. A mighty achievement for a mighty player.

5. P. Yoddha’s defiance in defence

In the first half of their match against U Mumba, U.P. Yoddha were in dire straits, facing an All-Out early in the match. But U.P. Yoddha’s defence was resistant to the pressure from U Mumba’s raiders and managed to deliver a mammoth performance in a short stretch. Sachin Kumar, Narender and Jeeva Kumar Super Tackled Darshan Kadian and Siddharth Desai twice each to not only delay the All-Out, but also creep back into the game with four additional points from the Super Tackles. Jeeva Kumar’s self out eventually gave U Mumba the opportunity to inflict the All-Out, but the monumental effort from the three defenders in the face of a predicament is worthy of applause.