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The final match of the Mumbai leg of Star Sports Pro Kabaddi was a cracker between the derby rivals – U Mumba and Puneri Paltan. The home side emerged victorious with a 28-21 scoreline to make it 4 wins in 4 on home turf. Mumbai had won all 3 matches they had played so far in the tournament, while Pune had lost the only match they were involved in against Telugu Titans.
The first points of the match came through a bonus point when Shabeer Bapu went in to raid. However, the Paltans struck back immediately and Wazir Singh’s spectacular raid saw 2 Mumbai players go out and they led 4-2 after 6 minutes. However, the home side went on a 4-point run with Shabeer Bapu and Rishank Devadiga getting the points.
Star raider Wazir Singh won his team 2 more points to level the score in the 12th minute. It was a welcome change from last match for the Paltan captain, where he had 9 empty raids before finally collecting his first points. Unfortunately for the away side, their captain was caught out in the next raid and in the process, he suffered an injury as well. Local boy Rishank Devadiga was having a stormer of a day scoring a point each in his first 4 raids.
With U Mumba leading 10-6 with 3 minutes to go, Paltans scored 3 unanswered points before the half-time break as the Maharashtra derby was separated by just 1 point at the break with U Mumba leading their fierce rivals 10-9.
U Mumba create history
After a slow start to the second half, Mahipal Narwal got things rolling in a do-or-die raid for the Paltans. He jumped over Surender Nada, tagging him along the way, to get Pune their first points of the half. Anup Kumar finally got in the act as he tackled Wazir Singh when his team had just 3 defenders to complete a super tackle, earning Mumbai 2 points to extend the scoreline to 13-11.
With Mumbai leading 16-13, Pravin Niwale got 2 Mumbai defenders out in a single raid and the last man standing for the home team, Pawan Kumar, was caught in the resulting raid as Puneri Paltan took the lead (18-17) with 10 minutes to go in the match.
The Bhaskaran Edachery coached side roared back in front of their fans taking a 4-point lead (22-18) after captain Anup Kumar got his first raid point of the match. Mumbai got 2 quick points in the 38th minute of the match to increase their lead to 5 points as the coach called a timeout.
The timeout worked well for Mumbai as they did not let the opposition come back in the match sealing a 7-point win. U Mumba created history by winning all the matches in their home as they stay at top of the table with 20 points, while Pune moved from the bottom of the table after getting their first point of the tournament as they lost by just 7 points.
Man of the match: Rishank Devadiga
Watch the highlights of the match here.
