Season 9 was a season of learnings for U Mumba

U Mumba tried to get a good blend of youth and experience in their team. They looked like a well-balanced unit with quality and promising players. The Mumboys performed in bits and pieces and failed to convert their chances at crucial junctures. Surinder Singh was appointed as the captain of the side, but he missed out on action in most of the matches in the second half due to an injury. Anil Chaprana did a commendable job as the coach with the available resources he got in the squad. The story in the recent edition looked like a repeat of Season 8 for the franchise.

The Season 2 champions had a decent start to their campaign and secured four wins out of the seven matches they played in the first leg. A similar story continued for them when they played the second leg in Pune. They missed the services of their captain Surinder Singh after he got injured; after which, Rinku was handed over the captaincy duty. U Mumba’s head coach Anil Chaprana tried to regroup the side in Surinder Singh's absence, but the team lacked a leader to guide them on the mat and as a result, they managed to win only two matches out of the eight fixtures in the final leg at Hyderabad.

Guman Singh, who was the most expensive Category B player of the Season 9 Player Auction with ₹1.215 crores, turned out to be their top raider in the tournament with 137 raid points to his name. Ashish (97 raid points) was the helping hand for Guman Singh as he scored crucial points for the side when their top raider Guman was out on the bench. Jai Bhagwan, Heidarali Ekrami and Pranay Rane had a good debut season and they added good value to the side. With 75 raid points, Bhagwan showed his attacking skills. After seeing the Iranians showing their defensive prowess, we also came across a solid Iranian raider in the form of Ekrami, who scored 32 raid points. Pranay Rane played his part with 25 raid points.

As far as the defence was concerned, Rinku was a reliable man for the team as he earned 59 tackle points. Mohit also proved his might and gave good support to his team with 44 tackle points. Surinder Singh did a splendid job in the matches that he featured in and came up with 35 tackle points in just 12 matches. Harendra Kumar didn’t live up to the expectations and scored 26 tackle points. Ashish showed his defensive skills and added 23 tackle points for the side. In the left corner, Kiran Magar secured 21 tackle points for the Mumboys. 

U Mumba were one of the contenders of making it to the playoffs and they were on the right path until they lost four out of the remaining five matches towards the end of the league stage. They missed their regular captain big time in the second half of the tournament which led to a ninth-spot finish in vivo Pro Kabaddi Season 9.

Follow vivo Pro Kabaddi on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter & YouTube for all the latest updates!