U Mumba and U.P Yoddha played out an evenly-poised 28-28 draw in Match 25 of Pro Kabaddi Season 8 at The Sheraton Grand Whitefield in Bengaluru on Saturday, January 1.
U Mumba’s right corner Rinku started brilliantly in the defence tackling Pardeep Narwal successfully in his first attempt. In fact, Rinku picked up 4 tackle points in a see-sawing first half dominated by the defenders.
At the other end, Yoddha’s Sumit Sangwan (six tackle points) decimated all the Mumbai raiders who came looking for points in his left corner. With Nitesh Kumar joining in the act, it was like the UP Yoddha duo rediscovered the form that made them successful in Season 7. Abhishek Singh had a poor first half and was often caught static on the left side of Yoddha.
But whenever UP Yoddha sniffed an ALL OUT, U Mumba produced some magic to stay in the match. Mohsen Maghsoudlou and Rinku produced successive Super Tackles while V Ajith Kumar managed a Super Raid when the Mumbai team had just one on the mat. The closely-fought first half ended 16-13 in U Mumba’s favour.
Rahul Sethpal’s Super Tackle delayed the eventual ALL OUT for Mumbai but U.P. - thanks to Sumit's High 5 - got an ALL OUT in the sixth minute of the half to level the scores 19-19. Sumit’s efforts worked a magic trick of its own as team-mate Surender Gill registered a 3-point Super Raid.
Interestingly, Pardeep Narwal was substituted by Yoddha close to the 10th minute for Shrikant Jadhav.
Mumbai’s Ajith Kumar ensured U.P. didn’t run away with the match with some clever raiding. Captain Fazel Atrachali produced a crucial tackle on Surender Gill and Abhishek Singh picked up a touch-point to give Mumbai a lead with a minute remaining. But Yoddha’s Ankit capitalised on a mistake by Fazel to make the scores level. The match ended with both set of raiders playing it safe and settling for a tie.
Featured photo: Pro Kabaddi
