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The Pune leg of the Pro Kabaddi League 2018 continued on as the third day of the competition saw the home side Puneri Paltan take on their rivals U Mumba in the second Maharashtra Derby of the season. The first derby of the season had seen the two teams end up sharing the spoils in a tied match during the first leg in Chennai.
The first match of the day saw UP Yoddha take on the Bengal Warriors at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi, Pune. The Bengal Warriors and UP Yoddha fought hard but ended up tying with the scores at 40-40. Maninder Singh's 16 raid point effort and Prashant Kumar Rai's 13 raid points were the standout performances for the two sides.
Puneri Paltan came into the match on the back of a hard-fought win over the Jaipur Pink Panthers owing to a defensive masterclass by them. Girish Maruti Ernak and Ravi Kumar dazzled for the side as their critical super tackles clinched the match for them on a day when Nitin Tomar suffered a rare off-night this season.
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U Mumba had beaten the Haryana Steelers in Sonepat in their previous encounter and looked in good touch this season not having lost a single match coming into this game. Siddharth Desai had emerged as a superb find for them, having scored 50 raid points in three matches, which was a new record in the Pro Kabaddi League. Fazel Atracheli and Dharmaraj Cheralathan had manned the defence well for them and hoped to keep the momentum going for the U Mumba side on the mat.
In another intense Maharashtra Derby, the two sides fought tooth and nail to the end but Puneri Paltan edged it 33-32 after Siddharth Desai stepped out of bounds in the penultimate raid of the match during a Super Tackle situation.
Puneri Paltan
Girish Maruti Ernak - (7.5/10)
The Puneri Paltan captain played in the cover position and did extremely well with his blocks on the U Mumba raiders. He scored a High 5 and was deadly with his dashes coming in from the left cover of the defence.
Ravi Kumar - (6/10)
The cover defender had a poor first half of the match as he gave away a couple of easy points to the U Mumba raiders. However, he inflicted a Super Tackle in the second half of the match on Abolfazl Maghsoudlou.
Shubham Shinde - (4.5/10)
The right corner for the Puneri Paltan side replaced Sandeep Narwal in the defence and had a decent match as he combined well with the other defenders.
Monu - (6.5/10)
The young Monu did well to support the lead raider Nitin Tomar with his smart raids and picked up a couple of raid points in the match.
Nitin Tomar - (9/10)
The star raider recovered superbly from his poor match last night and started the first half with eight points to his tally giving the Puneri Paltan the advantage. He was in good form in the second half as well and kept the U Mumba defenders on their toes.
Rinku Narwal - (3/10)
The left corner for the Puneri Paltan side had a rough time in the first half as he gave away a few points to the opposition.
Akshay Jadhav - (2/10)
The all-rounder had a quiet match tonight as he was unable to score tackle points for the team and had very few opportunities to put in raids.
Substitutes:
GB More - (5/10)
The substitute came in at a critical juncture when Puneri Paltan were down to the last man and scored a Super Raid to keep them in the lead.
U Mumba
Fazel Atrachali - (5/10)
The U Mumba captain had a very quiet night and did not put in many tackles from the left corner. He had one Super Tackle in the second half with a strong dash and added another point at the end of the match.
Abolfazl Maghsoudlou - (6/10)
The lanky Iranian raider played his first match this season and did well to support Siddharth Desai and grabbed three raid points in the encounter.
Rajguru Subramanian - (6/10)
The cover defender started off well in the match and scored a couple of tackle points with good ankle holds. He was a good support in the backline as they crawled their way back into the match.
Dharmaraj Cheralathan - (6/10)
The veteran defender of the U Mumba side played as the left cover tonight and did well to use his experience and score a couple of tackle points.
Hadi Tajik - (2/10)
The Iranian defender made his debut tonight and played the right corner for the U Mumba side. He had a poor night giving away a couple of easy touch points to Nitin Tomar and was substituted in the second half of the match.
Siddharth Desai - (9/10)
The in-form U Mumba raider was the main man again for the team as he notched fifteen raid points on the night. His last-moment gaffe led to the loss ultimately but he performed his heart out on the mat.
Rohit Baliyan - (2/10)
The former Dabang Delhi KC raider was used sparsely tonight by the U Mumba team and managed just one raid point in the entire match.
Substitutes:
Vinod Kumar - (5/10)
The all-rounder came on in the second half of the match and did well with his chance. He scored an important tackle point on Nitin Tomar towards the end of the match.
Abhishek Singh - (3/10)
The youngster was called on in the second half from the bench and did well to add a raid point and assisted in a few tackles as well.
