Dashing display in defence hand U Mumba their second win at home

A brilliant second half performance from U Mumba handed them a 41-24 victory over visitors U.P. Yoddha at the NSCI Indoor Stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday. The defence led the way for U Mumba with Surender Singh scoring seven tackle points and Fazel Atrachali bagging six. Raiders Siddharth Desai and Darshan Kadian scored seven raid points each in a good outing for the duo against a quality defence. Kadian provided the moment of the match with a game-sealing six-point raid.

U.P. Yoddha started the match well and took a 4-2 lead courtesy of two Bonus points from raider Prashanth Kumar Rai and a tackle point each from Narender and Sachin Kumar. But home team U Mumba fired right back with three straight points and reduced U.P. Yoddha down to just three men. With the Super Tackle on, Sachin got a hold of Desai to stop the raider in his tracks and score two points for his side in what became a recurring theme for the remainder of the half.

Check out the photos from the match here.

U Mumba fired back with two points on the trot and with just two men left on the mat, U Mumba looked set to inflict an All Out but Sachin Kumar’s touch point on Rohit Rana revived a defender and U.P. Yoddha’s defence managed another Super Tackle, this time on Kadian. Surender Singh tackled Rai to reduce U.P. Yoddha down to three again and much to the dismay of U Mumba, U.P. Yoddha got their third Super Tackle of the half and second on Rai to take an 11-8 lead.

Another similar sequence saw Fazel Atrachali tackle Shrikant Jadhav only for Sachin to Super Tackle Kadian as U.P. Yoddha managed to maintain their three-point slender lead. In the 19^th minute, Desai finally managed to break the sequence with a touch on Sachin and U Mumba did not let the opportunity pass as they inflicted the All-Out with a tackle on Rishank Devadiga and a touch on Narender to go into the break with a 15-14 lead.

The All-Out kicked U Mumba into overdrive as they outscored U.P. Yoddha 10-1 in the opening eight minutes of the second half. U Mumba’s defence, especially, was absolutely staggering in this run, with Surender getting three tackle points while Atrachali and Vinod Kumar contributed one each. Kadian got his first raid point of the match with a touch on Nitesh Kumar and Desai took care of Narender and Jeeva Kumar as U Mumba inflicted the second All-Out to take 25-15 lead in the match.

Visit the matchcentre to relive the contest here.

Jadhav fired back with three points in two raids and Nitesh sent Desai to the bench with a tackle to spark a hope of a comeback. But Atrachali’s Super Tackle on Jadhav and Kadian’s two-point raid fizzled out any momentum that U.P. Yoddha tried to build. Kadian followed that up with an incredible six-point raid, as he got a touch point on all four U.P. Yoddha players left on the mat before getting his hand across the midline to inflict a third All-Out on U.P. Yoddha to give his side 38-21 lead.

Despite the game being done and dusted, U Mumba showed no respite as Rana and Surender combined to tackle Jadhav and Atrachali got his fifth tackle point of the match with an Ankle Hold on Bhanu Pratap Tomar. With this tackle, Atrachali also completed 200 Tackle Points in VIVO Pro Kabaddi and he celebrated it with his sixth tackle point as well as the final point of the match as the clock expired and U Mumba curbed their two-game losing streak.

Top performers

U Mumba

Best Raider – Siddharth Desai (7 Raid Points)

Best Defender – Surender Singh (7 Tackle Points)

U.P. Yoddha

Best Raider – Shrikant Jadhav (4 Raid Points)

Best Defender – Narender (5 Tackle Points)