U Mumba captain Anup Kumar shrugged off his unimpressive form to orchestrate an amazing come from behind win for U Mumba against Bengaluru Bulls in match 23 of the Pro Kabaddi season 4. The team would be proud of pulling off a victory that at once seemed impossible as the two teams were locked in an intense tactical tussle, where none was ready to give anything away. In the end, the victory margin of 1 point told the story of an incredibly hard fought match.
Leading the Bulls into the all crucial match, Surender Nada was up against his former captain Anup Kumar and lost the toss to begin with. Matters were slow to take off in the match as the best raiders of both the sides, Anup Kumar and Rohit Kumar made reconnaissance raids initially. The first points came in the form of Do or Die raid as Jeeva Kumar’s disappointing season continued when he became the first man to go off the court. Mohit Chillar at right corner then foiled his ex-teammate Rishank Devadiga’s raid attempt. Chillar even took down Anup Kumar within the first six minutes to leave U Mumba without their main men on court. Still, the teams were almost inseparable on the score line in the first 10 minutes.
How important the match was for the teams could be made out by the calculative game which both showcased. As a result, even after 15 minutes, the teams were locked at 6-6. Both U Mumba and Bengaluru Bulls were not ready to give an inch. But every time, the Bulls did manage to stay in lead and Rohit Kumar chose to show how fantastic a raider he has developed into when, up against just two men, he helped Bengaluru Bulls inflict the first All Out of the match and put them in a 6 point lead at the halftime.
Had it not been for that raid, the teams would have gone to the raid happy, but at the break, the U Mumba camp looked tense. And they had obvious reasons to be. After all, even a single point lead was proving difficult to overturn in the first half.
Half Time: Bengaluru Bulls 14–8 U Mumba
But Anup Kumar had other plans. He did get the better of his ex-teammates Nada and Chhillar finally to fetch two points for U Mumba to start the second half on a positive note. Kumar got another point to show he is back in good form, but Bulls were not deterred. Mohit Chhillar sent Devadiga off the court once again to show he had his number for the day at least.
Captain Anup Kumar though wasn’t giving up though, leading a comeback only the way he could. In a span of 4 minutes, he did everything he could to bring his match back into the match. He made raids, pulled off a stunning ankle hold in defence and showed amazing presence of mind when he took off a Bulls’ player on the hot pursuit.
The lead had vanished with 6 minutes left in the match and both the teams were again locked at 20-20. A little skirmish between Anup Kumar and Surender Nada when only spiced up the contest. The Bulls realized they needed to get their act together and took the timeout. The talk in both the camps during the time out was to not give any easy point to the opposition at any cost
As the clock ticked, the packed crowd was getting tense and for the first time in the second half, U Mumba were in the lead when Rakesh Kumar brought down Pawan Kumar. Surjeet then punched the final nail in the coffin of Bulls when in a one on one dual with Rohit Kumar, he overpowered Rohit. In the end, one point separated the two team, but that for U Mumba was enough as they leapfrogged past all the 4 teams above it to climb up to the top of the table, a place so familiar to them.
Full Time: Bengaluru Bulls 23–24 U Mumba
