PKL 2018: U Mumba have it easy against struggling Dabang Delhi

In the first match of Pro Kabaddi 2018 on 11th of December 2018, U Mumba won their 15th match of the season and their 3rd against Delhi, with a huge margin of 25 points. Out of the 20 matches played by the Mumbai outfit, the second season winners now have won 15, lost 4 and tied 1.

The zone A leaders, U Mumba were in the perfect rhythm when they locked horns with the Delhi team. On the previous 2 outings against Delhi, U Mumba won 39-23 in the first match and 41-34 in the second. Today, however, the Mumbai team wreaked havoc as they crushed Dabang Delhi 44-19. It was a collective effort as always from the boys in orange outfit.

Siddharth Desai got to his 11th super 10 of the season, enroute his 12 raid points in the match. He is now 12 points clear (197 raid points) of Pradeep Narwal of Patna Pirates who is second with 185 raid points in the list of top raiders. Fazel Atrachali, the Iranian who led the Mumbai team, scored yet another high-5 in this match.

Another raider from U Mumba, Rohit Baliyan missed his super 10 by just 2 points. Overall, everyone except Rohit Rana, who started the match for U Mumba, scored at least 2 points in the match.

After beating Bengal Warriors 31-20 in their previous match, U Mumba were very high on confidence going into this match. U Mumba was a heavy storm that took Dabang Delhi by surprise today. This storm not only hit the Delhi team hard, but it has also made their chances of getting into the playoffs a tad difficult.

As for Delhi, Shabeer Bapu was the most successful raider with 5 raid points, while Satpal was the most successful defender with 4 tackle points. U Mumba was successful in keeping the Iranian all-rounder Meraj Sheykh quiet in the entire match, not giving him even a single point, until he was substituted in the latter part of the game.

The first points of the match came for U Mumba when Darshan Kadian scored a raid point in the opening moments of the game. Delhi opened their account in the second minute after successfully tackling Siddharth Desai. At the end of the 5th minute, Mumbai led 5-4 over Delhi.

The first super tackle of the game came in the 12th minute when Delhi caught Desai. The scorecard then was 11-8, still in U Mumba's favour. In the 16th minute, Delhi was all-out for the first time in the match, and Mumba led by 8 points now, 16-8. When the referee blew the half-time whistle, the scorecard read 19-11.

The second half had a steady start with U Mumba adding 4 points against Delhi's 3 in the first 5 minutes. After numerous empty raids, Meraj Sheykh was substituted in the 11th minute of the second half. By then the orange outfit was 30-15 ahead of Delhi.

Another all-out came in the 16th minute when Arjun Deshwal of U Mumba scored 4 points and the total score was 39-18. In the last 4 minutes of the match, Mumba scored 5 more points, conceding just 1. It was an emphatic win for the Mumbai. Today, Mumbai tested its bench strength too, to make sure they have a well-tried back-up in case of an injury in the upcoming matches.

U Mumba now sits on the top of the Zone A points table with 82 points in 20 matches. They are closely followed by the team from Gujarat who have 73 points from 18 matches. Though both the teams have qualified for the knockout stage, they are still battling it out for the top spot in their zone.

It is a good contest and it might go on till the very end of the group stage matches. U Mumba has been on fire this season and will hope to continue on their good work in the coming matches.

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