U Mumba beat Patna Pirates 51-41 in the highest scoring fixture of the season at the Motilal Nehru School of Sports in Sonepat on Saturday. Mumbai became the highest-scoring team in a single match this season with Kashiling Adake (15 points) and Shrikant Jadhav (13 points) both bagging Super 10s.

The teams were feeling each other out for most of the opening 10 minutes. However, U Mumba raiders Adake, Jadhav and Darshan Kadian were all finding success in attack and helped their team take control of the match by enforcing an All-Out on Patna in the 11th minute to take a 11-6 lead.

The Mumbaikars began to grow into the game and edged towards effecting a second All-Out of the half as the opening period neared its conclusion. Dubki King Pardeep Narwal tried to spearhead a comeback with three successive successful raids but Mumbai’s raiders kept picking away at Patna’s defence. The Season 2 winners eventually inflicted the All-Out on Patna in the final minute of the half before taking in a 24-14 lead into the break.

The second period began with Adake and Jadhav picking up where they left off in the first half, while Pardeep and Monu Goyat were also starting to shift gears for the reigning champions. The Patna skipper brought up his Super 10 in the 24th minute but a super tackle on him shortly after halted the Pirates’ momentum slightly.

The defending champions did eventually effect an All-Out in the 31st minute with Pardeep on the attack to cut Mumbai’s lead down to 32-30. Mumbai though returned to the mat with reinvigorated belief as Jadhav consistently picked up touch points and brought up his Super 10 in the process, while setting up another All-Out on Patna in the 37th minute.

It gave Mumbai a 46-36 lead with a little over three minutes left to play but Pardeep wasn’t about to go away without a fight and responded immediately with a super raid. U Mumba though killed off the match with a successful tackle on Pardeep in Patna’s next raid to hand the Pirates their third defeat this season.

Check out our snapshots from this match here.