Magical U Mumba manage to see off Haryana Steelers in style

U Mumba put up over half a century of points in an all-round performance as they triumphed over Haryana Steelers 53-26 at the Motilal Nehru School of Sports, Rai in Sonepat on Saturday.

The first half saw a clinical display from U Mumba in offence and defence. Rookie Siddharth Desai continued his fine form as he managed three points in his first two raids, scoring a bonus in his first and getting Sachin Shingade and Sunil in his second to set the tone for his side. But the real hero for U Mumba came in the form of Abhishek Singh, who managed to gets a point in his first raid and followed it up with a brilliant Super Raid to put U Mumba 8-2 up with just four minutes gone.

Vikash Khandola managed to get Rajaguru Subramaniam but it was only delaying the inevitable as Desai picked off Shingade and then captain Fazel Atrachali put the exclamation mark on U Mumba brilliant start with a tackle on Khandola to inflict an All-Out and give U Mumba a 12-5 lead. Raider Rohit Baliyan joined the party and got himself a two-point raid as U Mumba kept chipping away with points. Abhishek Singh performed exceedingly well in Do-Or-Die raids, picking up points for his team in two straight Do-Or-Die situations and four times over the course of the match.

Check out the photos from the match here.

At the 17-minute mark, Desai got a touch point to leave only Goyat on the mat. But Atrachali sent back Goyat when he came in to raid to inflict a second All-Out on Haryana Steelers. The half ended with Haryana Steelers scoring two straight points to take the score to 27-15 but more importantly, managing to tackle Desai to ensure he stayed on the bench at the start of the second half.

Desai wouldn’t stay there for long, though, as U Mumba opened the second half with four straight points to take a comfortable 31-15 lead in the match. Substitute Anand Surendra Tomar came off the bench to score a point on his first raid for Haryana Steelers, but on his second he ran into Dharmaraj Cheralathan who stopped the raider in his track to get his first tackle point of the night. Kuldeep Singh, last man on the mat for Haryana Steelers, surrendered a point to Abhishek Singh as U Mumba inflicted a third All-Out on their opponents.

With the score at 36-16 eight minutes into the second half, Haryana Steelers weren’t ready to let the game go and were still determined to force a comeback but U Mumba were relentless in their play. Baliyan picked up three more points in two raids, in what was a solid outing for him, scoring eight points for his side. Anand Tomar was a bright spark for Haryana Steelers as he managed four points as a substitute in the second half.

With five minutes left in the match, Abhishek Singh put the cherry on the top of his outstanding performance, completing a Super 10; his first ever in VIVO Pro Kabaddi. With under two minutes left, captain Atrachali got another tackle point to inflict a fourth All Out on Haryana Steelers. Atrachali had a magnificent night, scoring seven tackle points in seven attempts, with a tackle success rate of 100%. The match eventually ended 53-26 in U Mumba’s favour.

Visit the matchcentre to relive the contest here.