Pro Kabaddi League 2018 | Match 59: U Mumba vs Haryana Steelers Review | 11 November 2018

U Mumba having lost the game against Gujarat Fortune Giants the previous night would’ve been looking forward to getting back to winning ways in this match of Pro Kabaddi 6. As for Haryana Steelers, having lost 2 matches against U Mumba in the previous encounters this season, this match was important to prove their worth against the Mumboys. If the Steelers had Monu Goyat, the highest paid raider of the season, the Mumbai team had the sensational Siddharth Desai in their kitty. This was promised to be an amazing match.

Playing 7:

U Mumba – Siddharth Desai, Vinod Kumar, Rohit Baliyan, Surender Singh, Fazel Atrachali, Rohit Rana, Hadi Tajik.

Haryana Steelers – Vikas Kandola, Naveen, Sunil, Monu Goyat, Praveen, Kuldeep Singh, Sudhanshu Tyagi.

Substitutes:

Abhishek Singh from U Mumba.

Toss:

U Mumba won the toss and chose court.

Since the very beginning of the game, Mumbai was trying to dominate the mat. 5 minutes into the match and Mumbai took the lead, 5-2. In the next minute, Siddharth Desai sizzled on the mat and sealed the dominance for U Mumba by showcasing all his strength and will when he executed a Toofani Super Raid inflicting the 1st all-out of the night on Haryana Steelers by getting rid of all the 3 men on the court. The scoreboard read, 10-3.

Haryana Steelers exhibited a great comeback when the Haryana defence dashed Siddharth Desai off the court in his next raid and the Steelers raider Vikas Kandola continued to get back to back successful raid points for his team, bringing the score to 11-7, still in favour of U-Mumba.

With 9 minutes into the game, U Mumba had only 3 men remaining on the court and Haryana Steelers smartly played on a do-or-die raid and super tackled yet another U Mumba raider. In the subsequent raid, Vikas Kandola took 2 touch points, inflicting the 1st all out on the home team for the night. Both the teams started playing at par with each other. The game started getting intense with both the teams trying to take the lead. At 7 minutes before halftime, Haryana Steelers levelled the score to 12-all. 4 minutes before halftime, Haryana Steelers tackled Siddharth Desai for the 3rd time in the first half; levelling the score to 15-all.

U Mumba managed to take a 1-point lead at halftime, bringing the score to 17-16. The game was in absolute balance with none of the sides giving an inch to the opposition.

Vikas Kandola in action. [Picture Courtesy: ProKabaddi.com]

After halftime, both sides on the mat displayed a beautiful team game by tackling crucial raiders and taking easy-breezy touch points on the opposite teams, inflating the score to 20-all. At 10 minutes remaining in the match, the deadliest of the left corners in Pro Kabaddi, Captain of U Mumba Fazel Atrachali made an air stride and converted a 2-point raid by Naveen to a tackling point for the home team. Monu Goyat in the subsequent raids was tackled yet again; a rough night for Monu Goyat indeed. With all of this, the home team jumped through hoops to be in the lead. 25-23.

With 7 minutes remaining in the game, Vikas Kandola got rid of Fazel, the Mumbai Captain and completed his a Super-10 while Siddharth Desai, joined the league for a Super-10 of his own. The U Mumba led game changed its course when Haryana Steelers got a technical point as 2 raiders crossed the midline, reducing the score difference to 1-point yet again. With 2 minutes remaining, the viewers literally clenched their teeth and sat on the edge of their seats when Monu Goyat and Siddharth Desai ended up in back to back tackles and Rohit Baliyan, after a successful raid, levelled the score-line to 30-all.

The front-runner from Haryana Steelers, however, Vikas Kandola got a second wind at 30 seconds by taking a touch point on Fazel Atrachali post which he also took a touch point in his last raid to seal the game, 31-35. From a two horse race to Haryana Steelers completely stealing the show, this was an absolutely scintillating finish to a very well fought match.

Rohit Baliyan in action. [Picture Courtesy: ProKabaddi.com]

Back to back defeats in the home leg will have U Mumba hurting. They will be taking on UP Yoddha in the next match at DOME@NSCI Mumbai. The Mumbai outfit will try to avoid a 3rd consecutive loss on home turf. Siddharth Desai and Fazel Atrachali will once again be the key players who will have to step up their game to carry Mumboys to victory. Vikas Kandola was the star of the night with 15 points and has emerged out of the shadows of Monu Goyat as the lead raider for the Steelers. Haryana will be buoyed with their victory tonight and will look forward to gathering some momentum in order to qualify for the playoffs.

Get the latest standings from the PKL 6 Points Table