U Mumba stormed into the semi-finals of the third season of Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League with a crushing win over the Jaipur Pink Panthers, before following it up with a last-gasp win over Maharashtrian rivals Puneri Paltan. U Mumba now sit second in the table and have a chance to finish the league stage on the top of the pile, if they win the two remaining games.
U Mumba skipper Anup Kumar who spoke to the media after the win against the Puneri Paltan had bad news for the Telugu Titans who were hoping for some respite from the already qualified defending champions. Anup Kumar claimed that U Mumba would continue to field their full-strength team for the remainder of the two games.
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“When you are playing at home, you must win every game. We have got great home support here in Mumbai and so we have to win every game we play here, to give something back to the. So we will go full strength in all the games in our home leg,” Anup Kumar said.
The U Mumba captain, who missed a certain amount of games due to being away at the South Asian Games, felt that he always knew that his team would make it to the final four, due to the sheer ability in his team. “We had to qualify for the semi-finals. We are the defending champions and with the quality of players we have, the semi-finals were the least I think we should have achieved,” Kumar told the media.
We never thought we lost the game against Puneri Paltan: Rishank Devadiga
Rishank Devadiga has been U Mumba’s top raider this season and his quick escapes have left defenders extremely wary of him. However, the local boy made a quitter start against the Puneri Paltan on Monday, only to come to the party at the crucial late stage, to help U Mumba inflict a defeat of the high-flying Paltan.
“The game was never too far from us. It was always in the balance. We knew with the kind of raiders, we have we will always pick up points in our raids. So for me, we never thought the game was out of our reach,” Rishank divulged after the game against Puneri Paltan.
Rishank too echoed the thoughts of his skipper and felt there was no taking it easy for the defending champions. “We want to finish in the top spot, so we will go with a strong line-up against the Telugu Titans,” Rishank told the media after the game.
