It’s a premature end for the holders Delhi Capitals as they were handed a 79-77 loss by the Mumbai Challengers in the UBA professional Basketball League, at the badminton court, Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune on Friday.
But the encounter had all the ingredients to be called a thriller as the players dished out good basketball. Tied at 73-73 with two minutes to go, Mumbai's Prudhvi Reddy from Telangana, one of the main playmakers did the trick as he ensured Jaideep Bains found the target to take a slender two-point lead.
Notching up two pointers in the next one minute saw the Mumbaikars edge 77-73 ahead. Delhi were tough to crack as they were back with two field goals to level the score 77-77 but Mumbai pulled ahead by one point. It was a case of hits and misses which Mumbai was up against and another one pointer saw them take a 79-77 lead with 30 seconds to go.
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The Challengers managed to hold on to the lead and won a tightly contested basketball game.
"That was the break we got and that changed the game," said Jore Singh, the Mumbai coach while talking to Sportskeeda after the game.
“Marking key players and playing according to the game play did the trick for Mumbai. Kaushik Vinay is the key player for Delhi and he was under strict vigilance which paid off for us"' added the coach. Delhi is a good side, but at the end of the day Mumbai avenged their last years’ semifinal defeat. “We lost to them in the semifinals and today we have given it back to them,” said coach.
Jaideep Bains Nikhil and Prudhvi Reddy were the main players for Mumbai Challengers while Kaushik Vinay led the charge for the Delhi Capitals.
Mumbai Challengers: 79 (Jaideep Bains 19 pts, Nikhil 18 pts and Prudhvi 17 pts) beat Delhi Capitals 77: (Kaushik Vinay 20 pts, Ramesh Kumar 18 pts)
