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The first and second placed teams on the points table, U Mumba and Telugu Titans, respectively, will face off in a mouth-watering affair on Tuesday. This match could probably be a warm-up match for the finals between the two talented teams.
However, the playing styles of U Mumba and the Titans presents a tactical quandary for both the coaches. The team from Mumbai, more often than not, adopts a defensive approach while the Telugu Titans rely on multiple raiders to bail them out of trouble.
U Mumba’s defence vs Telugu Titans’ attack
Coach Bhaskaran clearly seems to favor a no-nonsense approach when his team defends. The pragmatic coach ensures his team is in a position to maintain their lead during closely contested matches. U Mumba just look a tad clever than the rest when it comes to protecting leads. Captain, Anup Kumar has supreme confidence in Jeeva Kumar, Surender Nada, Mohit Chilllar and Vishal Mane to do the job when the raiders seem out of sorts.
Star raider, Shabeer Bapu has not been 100% fit, but the team’s watertight defence relieves the pressure off the likes of Anup Kumar and Rishank Devadiga. This ensures the raiders do not have to risk a lot when attacking.
The Telugu Titans, on the other hand, have shown no signs of slowing down. They play an attractive brand of kabaddi and place emphasis on raiders picking up quick points to keep the scoreboard ticking. This puts added pressure on the opposition who then have to play the game at a pace that the Titans dictate.
It, definitely, will be interesting to see if the Titans adopt the same attacking approach against U Mumba this time around. Their last match ended in U Mumba’s favour as they edged the Titans by a single point (27-26).
The team from Hyderabad has managed to rack up close to 40 points on quite a few occasions. Whether or not U Mumba manages to curb their attacking exploits remains to be seen. After all, Jeeva Kumar and company did restrict the Titans to just 26 points last time around.
The match between the two heavyweights will start at 8 pm on 18th August.
