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Three successive losses at home wasn't how U Mumba had envisioned their matches at the NSCI stadium in Mumbai would pan out. Last night's defeat against fellow strugglers, Dabang Delhi severely dented Mumbai's hopes of building momentum at home.
It was their sixth loss in nine games and things are only going to get difficult from here on. Post the game, a dejected Anup Kumar spoke to the media. Rather than anger, there was a look of utter disappointment on the Mumbai captain's face. To put things into perspective, Kumar scored a super 10 which ultimately went in vain.
"I think our raiders did well. When the team needed me I attempted some raids and I was successful. Our defense though played loosely, if we hadn't committed those errors in the end, we could have won the match."
"The defenders are making too many mistakes. Our raiders,Shrikanth and Kashi both played well. Whenever we need to make tackles, we're consistently loosing 1-2 points," he added.
U Mumba have a much needed break on Monday before they take on the in-form Gujarat Fortunegaints on Tuesday. Anup believes they need to be extremely weary of the threat posed by Gujarat or else he reckons things could get out of control.
"We now play Gujarat Fortunegaints on Tuesday, they're a really good team. If we play like this against them then it will be a one sided match. I will try and build the confidence of the team," he stated.
Mumbai's new recruit, Surinder Singh, had a night to forget. The young defender was consistently targeted by Delhi's raiders who had no qualms what so ever whenever they approached his corner. Anup revealed that Surinder has been playing through injury.
"I think Surinder wasn't confident tonight. He has a slight injury on his thigh it could be because of that. But he never tells me, he keeps saying that he is fit. I think the injury is impacting his performance," the captain opined.
Off late, U Mumba have had to field some new faces in the starting seven owing to the injuries to a couple of their experienced players. Anup believes that the absence of their experienced campaigners has had a negative impact on the team's morale.
"We have a good mix of players, you cannot say that we only have young players. The injuries to Joginder and Suresh has made a lot of difference. The team is low on confidence without them. It takes time to set a new defence but we don't have time now. U Mumba wasn't in form and now we don't even have time," he signed off.
