U.P. Yoddha’s defence played exceptionally against U Mumba in Match 19.

U.P. Yoddha picked up their first win of VIVO Pro Kabaddi Season 7 with a 27-23 victory over U Mumba at the DOME@NSCI SVP Stadium in Mumbai on Wednesday. Sumit registered a High 5 for U.P. Yoddha, while Monu Goyat was their best raider with 6 raid points.   

U Mumba started brightly and were soon in a 2-0 lead to the delight of the home crowd. U.P. Yoddha, though, were looking sharp themselves and eventually got their noses in front with a 5-3 lead soon after. However, two Super Tackles - first by Sandeep Narwal and then Rohit Baliyan - helped the home side regain their lead with the score reading 8-6 in favour of U Mumba.

Despite trailing, U.P. Yoddha had more men on the mat for most of the last 10 minutes of the opening half. As a result, the visitors decided to take the game to U Mumba, with Monu Goyat and Rishank Devadiga going about their business aggressively. Their game-plan seemed to work as the first half ended with U.P. Yoddha enforcing the first All-Out of the game and taking a 14-12 into the second period.

Monu Goyat was U.P. Yoddha’s most effective raider.

U Mumba got the first point of the second half following a crunching tackle by Surinder Singh. Young Chang Ko, too, executed a couple of successful tackles to keep his team close. But U.P. Yoddha’s Nitesh Kumar and Sumit responded with successful tackles of their own.

Sumit picked up his High 5 nine minutes into the second period with U.P. Yoddha leading U Mumba by a scoreline of 19-15. U Mumba weren’t about to throw in the towel yet though and, with a little over six minutes on the clock, managed to reduce U.P. Yoddha’s lead to just two points after a few decisive tackles and a successful Abhishek Singh raid.

The final five minutes of the match saw both teams’ defence came to the fore, but neither team managed to put the game to bed as U.P. Yoddha led with just two points with two minutes to play. However, a successful raid by Monu Goyat followed by Fazel ‘Sultan’ Atrachali inadvertently stepping off the playing area in the dying moments of the game helped U.P. Yoddha to a four-point win.

Top Performers:

U Mumba –

Best Raider – Rohit Baliyan (4 Raid Points)

Best Defender – Surinder Singh (4 Tackle Points)

U.P. Yoddha –

Best Raider – Monu Goyat (6 Raid Points)

Best Defender – Sumit (6 Tackle Points)