U Mumba face Haryana Steelers in their penultimate league stage game

Haryana Steelers’ final league stage game before the vivo Pro Kabaddi Season 7 playoffs sees them take on U Mumba at the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex in Greater Noida on Thursday. Both sides have already qualified for the playoffs and will be looking to keep their confidence levels high with a win. The previous meeting between the two teams this season saw Haryana Steelers come out on top in what was a close game.

Match 130: U Mumba vs Haryana Steelers   

Head-to-head: U Mumba 4-3 Haryana Steelers.

U Mumba

Played: 20

Won: 11

Tied: 1

Lost: 8

Win Rate: 55%

Best Raider: Abhishek Singh

Best Defender: Fazel Atrachali

U Mumba will be looking to register three consecutive wins for the first time this season when they take on Haryana Steelers. However, they may opt to rotate a few of their players with back-to-back games on the horizon. Abhishek Singh, Athul MS, Rohit Baliyan and Arjun Deshwal are just a few of their raiding options, while ‘Sultan’ Fazel Atrachali, Surinder Singh, Sandeep Narwal and Young Chang Ko are their defensive stalwarts. With playoffs week just days away, none of them will want to stay away from the action and will be keen to be involved in some capacity, if not the entire 40 minutes.  

Haryana Steelers

Played: 21

Won: 13

Tied: 1

Lost: 7

Win Rate: 61.90%

Best Raider: Vikash Kandola

Best Defender: Sunil

Haryana Steelers have endured a bit of indifferent form of late and will be looking to head into the playoffs on the back of a convincing win. Thursday’s contest will be their last before the playoffs and it will be interesting to see what side coach Rakesh Kumar chooses to play. Vikash Kandola has been the team’s lead raider this year and Prashanth Kumar Rai has also come into his own in his last few outings. Vinay has also proven to be a game-changer and could feature heavily against U Mumba, if Haryana Steelers decide to rest Kandola and Rai. Defensively, the likes of Vikas Kale and Chand Singh will be hoping for good outings after confidence-sapping individual displays in their recent games.