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Breathtaking Kabaddi welcomed the Mumbai fans who had come in large numbers to watch the first day of Kabaddi in Mumbai. First up, a heavily changed U Mumba played their first home game at the DOME@NSCI SVP and were thrown out of the competition in the first half by Jaipur Pink Panthers before staging a comeback for the ages.
The comeback, however, wasn't good enough to undo their disastrous performance in the first half as they trailed by three points when the last whistle came to lose their first home game.
The second match of the double header saw Surjeet Singh's Bengal Warriors battle it out against the Pirates of Patna led by Pardeep Narwal. Narwal was off to a flying start in the first half but an injury to the nose meant that the honours of the day went were taken by another Narwal as Deepak Narwal helped Bengal Warriors pull off an amazing comeback to steal a tie from the Patna Warriors. Here are the five talking points from the exciting day
#1 Jasvir single-handedly demolishes U Mumba before half time
Jasvir Singh loves wearing the captain’s armband. Doesn't he? He looks a changed man when not wearing that band and that changed man didn’t do a lot as a raider for the Jaipur Pink Panthers in the early matches. But Manjeet Chillar’s injury might have proved to be a blessing in disguise for the team as Jasvir the raider has roared back to form with the responsibility of being the captain.
U Mumba’s Kuldeep Singh frustrated the Panthers as he delayed the inevitable of an All Out early on by getting his team crucial points even when they were down to three men.
But then Singh took it upon himself to break the deadlock and did it well when he got a five-point raid to make the score read 13-8 in the team’s favour. He wasn’t done yet and piled on the misery again with another three-point raid to put U Mumba on the path of another embarrassing All Out before half time.
The result was U Mumba tottering at 15-24 at the half time.
He stole another super raid in the second half to score a Super 10 for himself.
#2 U Mumba comes back to life in the dying minutes
Nothing in the first 30 minutes of the game suggested that U Mumba could do what they did in the last 10 minutes of the game. Quite early in the second half, owing to the huge difference between the scores, U Mumba looked to have resigned to their fate and were testing their bench against Jaipur.
With 10 minutes to go, the score stood 19-37 in favour of Jaipur and it seemed the Men in Pink would cruise to an easy win.
That's when U Mumba decided to show signs of the champion team they once were and staged a comeback that deserved a win, even if it didn't get one. Kashiling Adake brought some bonus points in record time while young Darshan Kadyan started making impressive raids.
The defence led by Kuldeep Singh sprung back to life and enforced the All Out on the Panthers in the dying moments. Had there been two more minutes on the clock, U Mumba could have definitely pulled off the heist of the season. That, however, was not to be as Jasvir Singh's time killing raids helped the Panthers secure the victory.
But, having scored 13 points in the last five minutes, U Mumba would be mighty proud of their comeback and would hope to take this momentum into their next encounter.
#3 Pardeep Narwal's special raid
Coming into the match with 70 raid points, Pardeep Narwal didn’t take too long to start making an impact against the Bengal Warriors. Unlike the last match, where many initial raids were taken by Monu Goyat, Narwal put the onus on himself on Friday.
The best of the early raids came when he overcame Bhupinder Singh in the 10th minute with a splendid effort. The big Bhupinder thought he had his man with a tight ankle hold as there was still a lot of distance between the midline and Narwal’s hand.
That’s when Narwal displayed some amazing lower body strength as he retreated on his back despite Bhupinder’s tight hold of his leg, pulling Bhupinder with him in the process. What needs to be kept in mind to appreciate this raid of Narwal is the size of Bhupinder Singh against whom Narwal achieved the task. It wasn’t the only time he managed that though, as seconds before the half time he put an encore of that raid against Kuldeep.
#4 Nasty nose injury brings down Narwal
Kabaddi can be a bloody sport. At least that's what the last week has shown. Three days ago, it was Nilesh Shinde and on Friday, it was Pardeep Narwal who bore the brunt of the highly physical nature of the game. Halfway into the first half, the Patna Pirates went in for a tackle and Narwal had a nasty collision with one of the biggest men on the mat, Vishal Mane.
Mane's head banged into Narwal's face and the raider's nose took a bad hit. In no time, the blood started flowing from the nose and Narwal had to use a towel to deal with it while on the mat. Post the injury, Narwal couldn't be at his threatening best and was satisfied taking empty raids more often than not. In hindsight, the injury might have proved to be the game's turning point.
#5 The other Narwal steals the show
What U Mumba couldn't do, Bengal did!
With his team trailing behind by nine points in the 36th minute, the Warriors' coach didn't have the most positive of the messages for his team as he asked his troops to try to go for one point by reducing the margin of defeat to less than seven. Captain Surjeet Singh, however, had a different message and the way the team played in the last few minutes, one can be sure who is the more dominating figure in the Warriors dressing room.
The Warriors went in for the broke and, owing to superlative raiding efforts by Deepak Narwal, turned the match on its head and stole a tie from the jaws of defeat. Monu Goyat's last second harakiri also helped their cause.
With Pardee Narwal on the bench, Goyat had to take the final raid of the game with his team leading by a solitary point. Pressure, however, got the better of the Patna raider as on the last raid of the match when he could have simply decided to kill time after crossing the baulk line, he chose not to and gave away that one point to the Bengal defence that helped them pull off a miraculous tie.
