Dabang Delhi challenges table-toppers U Mumba

While the country celebrated its Independence Day, another celebration was slated to take place at the Balewadi Sports Complex as the rejuvenated Dabang Delhi readied themselves to take on the indomitable U Mumba team. After carrying out a fantastic victory against Bengaluru Bulls the Delhi team seemed to have found their footing in the tournament. U Mumba on the other hand needed this win to re-establish themselves as the supreme power in the league.

After an inspiring welcome from the Pune City Police Marching Band, the battle of epic proportions between Dabang Delhi and U Mumba got underway. In what was a very tightly fought contest for the first 20 minutes of the game, it ultimately was the Delhi team that emerged victorious. The second half saw the Dabang Delhi rise to prominence, thanks to the invigorated gameplay of the Delhi defence, with UMumba trailing 9 points behind.

The game started off with an equal display of talent from both teams, which would prove to characterise the majority of the night. With Mumbai's Anup Kumar and Delhi's Surjeet Narwal scoring the majority of the points, the rest of their teammates were no slouches either. The first 10 minutes saw terrific plays from the whirlwind Rishank Devadiga and the lightning fast Kashiling Adanke, setting the scores at 10 - 9, with Delhi barely holding the lead. Continuing in this fashion for the rest of the first half, neither of the two powerhouse teams were able to get the upper hand, with the Dabang defence taking out every other UMumba raider, and the UMumba defence responding in kind. The half-time scores were 12-14 in favour of Delhi.

The second half started off with a bonus from Anup, which brought the scores to 14 - 13, Delhi still leading. The teams carried on with their reciprocating raids, but after failing to make up for a lost player through an empty raid, Mumbai found itself left with only 4 players to Delhi's 6. Unable to persevere with the lesser numbers, the Delhi team took them to their knees with the match's first all out, bringing the score to 23 - 17.

If UMumba wanted to make this point differential up, they would need to play a lot more aggressively than the first half of the match, a fact demonstrated by Anup Kumar's subsequent 3 point raid. This heightened aggression quickly became Mumbai's downfall as the Delhi defence calmly captured the desperate UMumba raiders. In the 36th minute, Surjeet's raid was countered by only one anti-raider, who was easily dispatched to result in Mumbai's second all out and set the Delhi's victory in stone. The second team to pull the UMumba down from its seemingly unbeatable position, Dabang Delhi proved it will have to wait until the very end of the finals for the Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League to have an established champion.