Bengal Warriors and U Mumba hunt successive wins in Kolkata

Home side Bengal Warriors will host U Mumba in the penultimate game of their home leg at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Indoor Stadium on Wednesday. While Bengal Warriors won a last-gasp thriller against Puneri Paltan on Sunday, U Mumba too played out a convincing victory against Telugu Titans after a strong defensive display.

Match 85: Bengal Warriors vs. U Mumba

Head-to-head: Bengal Warriors 3-10 U Mumba.

Bengal Warriors

Played: 14

Won: 7

Tied: 3

Lost: 4

Win Rate: 50%

Best Raider: Maninder Singh

Best Defender: Baldev Singh

Bengal Warriors have enjoyed a tremendous campaign thus far and currently occupy the second spot in the vivo Pro Kabaddi Season 7 standings. They have enjoyed a good home leg so far and have scored eight of a possible 10 points and will look to continue their good run in front of the home crowd in Kolkata. Skipper Maninder Singh has been the team’s most successful raider with 114 raid points while raider K. Prapanjan and all-rounder Mohammad Nabibakhsh have contributed immensely, with 86 and 58 raid points respectively. Bengal Warriors’ raiding unit have managed, a league-leading, 10 Super Raids this season, a testament to their ability to turn the game on its head in a single raid. That was on full display in their past outing, when Nabibakhsh wiped out Puneri Paltan with a five-point raid in the final minute to earn victory for his side. The defence, led by Baldev Singh and Rinku Narwal, has an astute look to it, with the likes of Jeeva Kumar, Mayur Shivtarkar and Adarsh. T providing some much-needed support to the corner duo. With talent and experience across the board, Bengal Warriors are among the finer sides and the league and they will try to showcase that against a defensively sturdy U Mumba outfit.

U Mumba

Played: 14

Won: 7

Tied: 1

Lost: 6

Win Rate: 50.00%

Best Raider: Abhishek Singh  

Best Defender: Fazel Atrachali

U Mumba’s run this season has been a little inconsistent, but now having gone with three straight matches without a loss could indicate towards a strong second half of the campaign. While none of their raiders feature in the top ten in the season’s overall raid points tally, they have been clicking as a unit and Arjun Deshwal’s near-Super 10 effort in the last match against Telugu Titans is an example of that. Abhishek Singh remains as the lead raider for the outfit, the only one from U Mumba in the top 20 in the raid points charts this season, but he will look to the strong defence to back him up. Captain Fazel Atrachali is the third best defender in this edition of the league and has been astutely supported by all-rounder Sandeep Narwal and Surinder Singh. U Mumba, as Atrachali pointed out after their last match, have been able to strike a balance in their raiding and defensive units, and that could just be the key to make their way towards the top of the standings.