U Mumba stuns Bengal Warriors in closely fought contest

CHENNAI: U Mumba secured its third victory on the trot as it defeated the Bengal Warriors 39-37 in the Pro Kabaddi League season 10 at the SDAT Multi-purpose Indoor Stadium in Chennai on Sunday. Leading the charge was Iranian Amirmohammad Zafardanesh with 8 points for U Mumba on the night.

Early on, Sombir stopped Maninder in his tracks to get his team off the mark before Guman Singh and Zafardanesh opened the account for U Mumba. Guman was especially impressive, sending Darpan and Vaibhav Garje off the mat with his raids. In a Do-or-die raid for the Kolkata-based team, Maninder showed his prowess to earn a bonus point and the star raider also got the opponent skipper Surinder Singh off the mat to equal the score in what was turning into a closely-fought contest.

Shrikant Jadhav entered the points tally after the time-out to get Rinku eliminated, but the U Mumba players never gave up on getting the crucial points. With every point won by the Warriors, the likes of Zafardanesh and Visvanth kept their team in the game. Then, the U Mumba defenders, led by Mahender Singh and his skipper Surinder, pulled off three consecutive SUPER TACKLES to take the lead over the Warriors as the scores read 18-15 heading into halftime.

The Warriors clawed their way back into the game early, getting the U Mumba team ALL OUT with some impressive raids and defensive tactics. U Mumba did well to get itself back on level terms while Maninder Singh also created his own piece of history. With a raid to eliminate Surinder, mighty Maninder earned his 1300th raid point in the Pro Kabaddi League, just the second to do so after Pardeep Narwal.

As the match went on, U Mumba used the SUPER TACKLE to its advantage to drag itself back into the game. It brought on Zafardanesh at the most important moment of the clash, and immediately, the all-rounder lifted the team over the Warriors.

In the evening’s second match, Bengaluru Bulls earned a 33-31 win over Telugu Titans.