U Mumba finished their home leg on a winning note, winning their fourth encounter out of six, the most successful home leg record till date, when they outplayed Tamil Thalaivas 36-22 in the 6th Vivo Pro Kabaddi League played at the Dome@NSCI, SVP Stadium.
Darshan Kadian started the game with a quick raid point but Tamil Thalaivas took 3 in quick succession to keep the U Mumba team in check and opening up a 4-2 lead in the first 5 minutes. After 2 unsuccessful raids, crowd favorite Siddharth managed to score a crucial bonus point in a do or die raid and then got his team out of a tricky situation by taking out Amit Hooda and leveling the scores at 5-5 with 10 minutes to go in the first half. Thalaivas skipper Ajay took out 2 of U Mumba’s key players, but U Mumba bounced back with a super tackle from Rohit Rana.
U Mumba’s defense dominated the proceedings from there on, scoring back to back points and racing to a 15-9 lead. Siddharth was clearly the man to go to under pressure as he secured his third do or die raid taking out Amit Hooda and Sukesh Hegde. U Mumba had a 6 point lead at 18-12 going into the second half.
The second session started with a successful do or die raid from Darshan followed by a joint tackle by Rohit and Surinder, maintaining their 6 point lead at 21-15. Defense came to the party again with Fazel and Vinod scoring 2 quick tackle points to extend the lead to 7 points. A quick do or die raid from Abolfazl, who had replaced Siddharth, and an unsuccessful raid from Thalaivas Jasveer saw them slump to a second all out extending U Mumba’s lead by 11 points at 28-17 with 8 minutes to go.
U Mumba had a smooth sailing thereafter, picking up quick points and holding the fort to lead 34-21 with 90 seconds to go. Thalaivas had no chance to stage a comeback losing the tie 36-22.
When asked about his team’s performance in the home leg Coach Gholamreza said “I think we could have had a better record but I am happy winning 4 of the 6 matches”, he further added.
-Ajay Thakur of Tamil Thalaivas was adjudged the Perfect Raider, while Vinod Kumar of U Mumba emerged the ace defender. The moment of the match went to Fazel Atrachali. Siddharth Desai was adjudged the No. 1 player of the home team, while the home leg total control player award went to Atrachali.