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The Haryana Steelers' woeful run in their home leg as part of the Pro Kabaddi League season six came to an end as U Mumba inflicted a 32-42 loss on the Steelers, who could manage to claim just one win from five matches at the Motilal Nehru Sports School in Sonipat, Haryana.
Hit by the loss of Surender Nada from their opening fixture of the season, the Steelers put in a good show against the Gujarat Fortune giants to win 32-25 but post the win, Monu Goyat's men failed to impress as they lost all their remaining matches and face the uphill task of making a comeback to challenge the other teams in the title race.
The Steelers' 26-53 loss against U Mumba was the biggest talking point of the home leg as the hosts could barely negate the challenge that stood ahead of them as they fell to the season's biggest loss so far.
The defense unit looked hapless against Puneri Paltan in their next game as Kuldeep, Sunil, Mayur Shivtarkar and Sachin Shingade combined to pick up just three points, highlighting their inefficiency.
Against the Jaipur Pink Panthers, the Steelers put up a better resemblance of a fight as the difference was only three points at the final whistle in a game that saw young Naveen emerging as the Steelers' best player with 17 points, including 15 raid points and two tackle points.
The Steelers enjoyed only a few moments in a faltering campaign, which had more misses than hits throughout. Here are few of those hits and misses from their campaign.
#1 Hit: Rise of Naveen
In a home stretch that saw the experienced likes of Monu Goyat and Vikash Khandola struggle for consistency, young Naveen exceeded expectations as he took the task with aplomb, outscoring his team-mates in most of the games.
Against the Fortunegiants, Naveen's nippy raiding and useful tackling saw him finish with six points but Naveen's real moment of glory came in the game against the Jaipur Pink Panthers, when he finished with a total of 17 points, comprising of 15 raid points and two tackle points but unfortunately finished on the wrong side of the result.
#2 Miss: Monu Goyat's lack of form
Monu Goyat's services were purchased for a record sum of ₹1.51 crore and a lot was expected from Monu, who was also given the responsibility of leading the side in the absence of Surender Nada, who was ruled out of the season with a broken arm.
However, Monu's performances this season have been a far cry from his standards and one reason that can be attributed to Haryana's poor show at home can be directly co-related with Monu's inability to score points.
Against the Fortunegiants, Monu came a cropper against his opposite number Sunil Kumar as he finished with just 7 points while against the mighty defense unit of U Mumba, he could just pick up three points.
The Puneri Paltan's formidable duo of Girish Ernak and Sandeep Narwal stood in Monu's way in the Steelers' next game as he finished with just 8 raid points and when the Steelers came up against the Pink Panthers, the young defenders kept Monu at bay.
However, Monu's 15-point effort against U Mumba might give him the confidence he needs to lead his team to victory.
#3 Miss: Where was Sachin Shingade?
One of the instrumental factors in Patna Pirates' title victory, Sachin Shingade made a move to the Steelers and was expected to make a big mark alongside Surender Nada. However, once Nada was out of the picture, a lot of dependence fell on Shingade's shoulders but all in vain as the cover defender has failed to get going this season.
In Haryana's win against Gujarat, Shingade picked just two points and repeated his performance against the raiding trio from U Mumba. Next came the Puneri Paltan and against Nitin Tomar and Co., Shingade looked all at sea as he picked just a solitary point.
His poor run of form saw him lose out on his place to Sudhanshu Tyagi against the Panthers and he did himself no good as in four tackles, Shingade failed to pick a single point when he came on as a substitute against U Mumba.
#4 Hit: Vikash Khandola's positive show
Khandola had a poor start to the Steelers' home leg as he picked just a solitary point from 13 raids against Gujarat but he made a strong comeback against U Mumba, missing out on a well-deserved 'Super 10' with nine points in the game.
His confident show against U Mumba seemed to have carried on into the game against the Paltan as the raider looked way more comfortable than his team-mates and in the process, also collected his first Super 10 of the season with 11 points from the game.
In the next assignment against the Panthers, Khandola contributed in the defense department as well with a top tackle apart from picking up points with clever raids. However, he seemed slightly off-color in the recent game against U Mumba with just four points from 12 raids and the raider will hope to maintain his positive show to rejuvenate the Steelers' campaign this season.
#5 Miss - Lack of defensive cohesion
The Steelers certainly seemed to miss the presence of Surender Nada on the left corner as the relatively young defensive unit failed to make an impression in the home leg and was a major talking point of their four losses.
Barring Kuldeep Singh's debut match in the left corner against the Gujarat Fortunegiants where he picked up 7 points, the next best show was from substitute Parveen against U Mumba in the most recent encounter.
Parveen's two decisive super tackles stood out in the game as the rest of the defense seem to kneel owing to the combination of Siddharth Desai and Rohit Baliyan which saw the likes of Kuldeep and Sunil finish with just two points each.
Kuldeep Singh finished as the Steelers best defender with 13 points from 5 games while Sunil (7), Sachin Shingade (5), Mayur Shivtarkar (2) did not have the best of home legs.
