A tale of two halves sees U Mumba narrowly edge out Bengaluru Bulls

A brilliant first half from U Mumba and a hearty effort from Bengaluru Bulls in the second half delivered a thrilling contest at the Dome@NSCI SVP Stadium in Mumbai on Wednesday and, much to the delight of the home crowd, it was U Mumba who came away with a 32-29 victory.

U Mumba started the match in unbelievable fashion, inflicting the first All-Out of the match in just the 9^th minute without giving up a single point, to take a 9-0 lead. Darshan Kadian led the way for his side in this run with three touch points and U Mumba’s defence backed him up with three powerful tackles.

Check out the photos from the match here.

Post the All-Out, U Mumba added three more points to their lead courtesy of Surender Singh’s tackle on Pawan Sehrawat and a touch point each from Abolfazl Maghsodlou and Kadian.

Captain Rohit Kumar finally got his side on the board with two straight points and Corner Sandeep managed to get his team’s first tackle point of the night, stopping Kadian in his track as Bengaluru Bulls tried to cut into U Mumba’s lead. But two more raid points from Kadian and Dharmaraj Cheralathan’s tackle on Rohit Kumar quickly fizzled out Bengaluru Bulls’ momentum. Kadian continued his good work on the night and got a two-point raid in the final minute of the half as the teams went into the break with U Mumba leading 17-6.

The second half saw a role reversal with Bengaluru Bulls putting point-after-point on the scoreboard and coming close to hunting down U Mumba’s first half lead. With the score at 25-9, Bengaluru Bulls went on an 11-1 run, kick-started by Sehrawat’s touch point on Rohit Rana. Sehrawat followed that up by scoring five straight points in three raids, including a Super Raid that also helped Bengaluru Bulls inflict an All-Out on U Mumba and cut down their deficit to just six.

U Mumba retaliated by scoring two straight tackle points. But Kashiling Adake’s Super Raid sent U Mumba’s defensive trio of Cheralathan, Atrachali and Surender Singh to the bench, leaving them short-handed in defence. Sehrawat then got a touch point on Rajaguru Subramanian and took his team within four points of U Mumba’s score, giving his side every chance to level the match and even possibly win it.

But two outstanding tackles from Surender Singh gave U Mumba a seven-point cushion with just over a minute left in the contest.

Bengaluru Bulls ended the match with four-straight points to reduce the deficit to three and earn themselves a point. But it was U Mumba who were victorious for the second straight night in front of their home crowd.  

Visit the matchcentre to relive the contest here .

Top performers:

U Mumba –

Best raider: Darshan Kadian (9 Raid Points)

Best defender:  Surender Singh (5 Tackle Points)

Bengaluru Bulls –

Best raider – Pawan Kumar Sehrawat (8 Touch Points)

Best defender – Sandeep (2 Tackle Points)