U Mumba halt Gujarat Fortunegiants’ win-streak with brilliant display

U Mumba handed Gujarat Fortunegiants their first defeat of VIVO Pro Kabaddi Season 7 after besting them by a 32-20 scoreline at the Dome, NSCI, SVP Stadium in Mumbai on Friday. Surinder Singh was the hero for the home team, ending the match with a High 5 and four raid points.

The match began with Abhishek Singh picking up raid points for U Mumba but Rohit Gulia matched him from Gujarat Fortunegiants' end. Both defences, too, registered points with U Mumba's Surinder, in particular, impressing in the early stages, picking up four tackle points within the first 15 minutes.

With two minutes left on the clock and U Mumba 8-5 up, a Super Tackle initiated by Ankit on Abhishek helped Gujarat Fortunegiants cut down the deficit to just a single point. The hosts, however, took a two-point lead into the break, after Fazel ‘Sultan’ Atrachali's tackle on Sachin handed U Mumba the final point of the first half.

After the restart, a three-man Gujarat Fortunegiants defence executed another Super Tackle to restore parity but the U Mumba defence continued working well together and kept Gujarat Fortunegiants restricted to three men on the mat. A touch point by Arjun Deshwal on Parvesh Bhainswal eventually reduced them to two and the All Out soon followed as Surinder reached his High 5. With 14 minutes left to play, U Mumba opened up a 15-9 gap.

A big Super Raid by Rohit Baliyan then added to U Mumba’s lead as the scoreline read 18-10 with just under 11 minutes left on the clock. Gujarat Fortunegiants tried to engineer a fightback and picked up the next five points on the trot to reduce the hosts to just two men on the mat.

U Mumba, however, replied with a crunching Super Tackle by Young Chang Ko. Surinder followed it up with a four-point Super Raid as the tables suddenly turned with U Mumba inflicting a second All Out of the match on Gujarat Fortunegiants. U Mumba were firmly on top with a 28-15 lead going into the final four minutes and held on to end their home leg with a 32-20 victory.

Top Performers:

U Mumba –

Best Raider – Abhishek Singh (5 Raid Points)

Best Defender – Surinder Singh (5 Tackle Points)

Gujarat Fortunegiants –

Best Raider – Harmanjit Singh (4 Raid Points)

Best Defender – Ankit (3 Tackle Points)