Pro Kabaddi League: U Mumba claims victory against Puneri Paltan

U Mumba's Abhishek Singh (in orange) in action v Puneri Paltan at NSCI on Saturday. PIC/SURESH KARKERA

Riding on home support and an aggressive strategy in the second half, U Mumba won the Maharashtra Derby by beating Puneri Paltan 33-23 in the opening Mumbai leg game of the Pro Kabaddi League Season-7 at the National Sports Club of India in Worli on Saturday.

Abhishek Singh, Rohit Baliyan and Arjun Deshwal were the stars for U Mumba. It was an open game initially, but the Pune side twice succeeded in getting Mumba's South Korean raider Dong Geon Lee. However, Paltan's Manjeet failed in a do-or-die raid and U Mumba leveled the score 4-4. Then, Mumba's star raider Abhishek's (five points in the game) brilliant raid earned a point which helped bring back Lee in the game. Though Lee failed to play to potential, Abhishek succeeded in every raid and got his team the much-needed points.

U Mumba's defender Surnider Singh failed on a couple of occasions, but later single-handedly grabbed Pune's experienced raider Girish Ernak which helped them take a point just a minute before half-time (11-9).

U Mumba came up with a different strategy for the reminder of the game - an attacking one - which helped the hosts hit the visitors twice in the game. Former India skipper Anup Kumar's tips (he played for U Mumba for five seasons and is now Pune's coach) to his players went in vain.

Pune's raider Sushant Sail, who was introduced in the second half of the game, made his presence count as he succeeded getting U Mumba's captain Fazel Atracheli and then Surinder Singh in two consecutive raids. However, Abhishek countered him well in the third. From then, Pune were totally on the back foot as U Mumba, riding on their defence line as well as raiders kept the opponents under pressure.

U Mumba raider Deshwal, who replaced Lee a few minutes before the first-half, showed his attacking skills and earned points in every raid. His raid during a do-or-die situation was magical to watch and one that led to the 33-23 victory.

Meanwhile, in a closely-contested second match on Saturday, Jaipur Pink Panthers beat Bengal Warriors 27-25. The Bengal team led 14-10 at half-time Panthers bounced back to earn 17 points as compared to Bengal's 11 in the second half.

Live on tv

Dabang Delhi v Haryana Steelers, 19:30
U Mumba v Bengaluru Bulls, 20:30
'Both matches on Star Sports 2, 2 HD, SS 1 Hindi and 1 Hindi HD

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