Late heroics from Atrachali and Desai give U Mumba a thrilling win

A breath-taking encounter with twists and turns at every corner eventually finished with U Mumba triumphing over Patna Pirates by a scoreline of 40-39 at the Patliputra Indoor Stadium in Patna on Saturday. Siddharth Desai scored a Super 10 while Fazel Atrachali returned a High 5 in U Mumba’s cause.  

The first half started out as the Pardeep Narwal Show as the Patna Pirates captain scored the first four points that his team managed in the match. But rookie sensation Siddharth Desai matched the reigning MVP toe-to-toe, scoring three of his team’s first four points. With the score at 4-4, Jaideep’s Ankle Hold sent Desai to the bench in what turned out to be a 10-minute absence on the mat for the raider.

Check out the photos from the match here.

Despite being at a disadvantage, U Mumba’s defence held their own against Patna Pirates’ offence with veteran Dharmaraj Cheralathan and captain Fazel Atrachali managing a Super Tackle each to push their team’s lead to 10-7. U Mumba struggled for revivals, though, as Patna Pirates’ defence starved U Mumba’s raiders for points and picked them off one after the other to reduce U Mumba’s lead to just one.

Jaideep eventually tackled U Mumba’s last man on the mat Vinod Kumar to inflict the game’s first All Out on U Mumba.

Desai finished the half with a tackle point on Manjeet, followed by a touch point as the clock expired and the teams went into the break with the scores level at 14-14.    

U Mumba started the second half with two straight points and reduced Patna Pirates to just three men on the mat as they tried to strengthen their grip over the match, but a Super Tackle on Desai gave Patna Pirates back the momentum. Narwal followed that with a two-point raid and the tide had swiftly turned back into Patna Pirates’ favour. Narwal got the final three players as well to inflict the game’s second All-Out on U Mumba as his team took a 25-18 lead.

Following this All-Out, the match became an offensive shootout, as Rohit Baliyan and Desai started mounting a comeback. In the 30^th minute of the match, captain Atrachali pulled off a huge tackle on Narwal and U Mumba smelled blood as they attempted to run through the rest of the Patna Pirates team and inflict an All-Out on them.

As Narwal was on the bench, Vikas Jaglan came in for a raid and managed to send three men to the bench and push his team’s lead back up to four.

Visit the matchcentre to relive the contest here.

With under four minutes left and the team facing a four-point deficit, Desai shouldered the responsibility of bringing his team back into the game as he got three points in two raids to bring the deficit back down to two.

Atrachali’s then managed to get a hold on an escaping Jaglan and gave U Mumba the lead.

Desai delivered the killer blow, getting a touch point on Jaideep with just mere seconds left. Atrachali then surrendered a touch point to Vijay to avoid a big raid as the clock expired and U Mumba beat the reigning champions by a solitary point.

Top Performers:

Patna Pirates –

Best Raider: Pardeep Narwal (17 raid points)

Best Defender: Jaideep (5 tackle points)

U Mumba –

Best Raider: Siddharth Desai (14 raid points)

Best Defender: Fazel Atrachali (6 tackle points)