Pro Kabaddi League 2018 | Match 57: U Mumba vs Gujarat Fortunegiants Review | 10 November 2018

U Mumba was looking for their first victory against Gujarat Fortunegiants on their home turf at the DOME at NSCI SVP Stadium, Mumbai. The Zone A table-toppers were probably taking on the best young defence in the league. Gujarat would be reliant on Sachin to shoulder the burden of raid points while, U Mumba were looking at their talismanic young sensation, Siddharth Desai to lead the raiding unit.

Playing 7:

U Mumba – Fazel Atrachali, Siddharth Desai, Surender Singh, Rohit Rana, Rohit Baliyan, Abhishek Singh, Dharmaraj Cheralathan

Gujarat Fortunegiants – Sachin, Sunil Kumar, Parvesh Bhainswal, Rohit Gulia, Ruturaj Koravi, Sachin Vittala, Dong Geon Lee.

Substitutes Used:

Vinod Kumar and Darshan Kadian from U Mumba. Mahendra Rajput, K. Prapanjan and Ajay Kumar from Gujarat Fortune Giants.

Toss:

U Mumba won the toss and chose the court.

Sachin opened Gujarat Fortunegiants' account in the very first raid. The home team got a point on the scoreboard when Rohit Rana executed a colossal dash on a Gujarat raider, sending him off the mat.

In a desperate attempt to tackle the Fortunegiants, U Mumba ended up giving points to the opposing team, leaving only 2 men on the court. But the substitution Vinod Kumar against Siddharth Desai brought a super tackle on Gujarat Fortunegiants bringing the score to 7-all. U Mumba finally got the lead 11 minutes into the match at 10-7 with five team members back on the mat, up from two.

U Mumba team captain, Fazel Atrachali, taking lead in defence. [Picture Courtesy: ProKabaddi.com]

The Gujarat defence upped its game and had back to back tackles on Abhishek Singh and Siddharth Desai, leaving two men on the mat for the U Mumba. Dong Geon Lee finally took two touch points in his next raid, inflicting the first all-out on the home team. At halftime, the scoreboard read 14-18, in favour of Gujarat Fortunegiants.

The start of the second half seemed to be in favour of the Mumboys when Siddharth Desai took two points in his raid and Fazel Atrachali tackled a Gujarat raider. The Gujarat Fortunegiants were a tough competition indeed. In the next do-or-die raid, Parvesh Bhainswal tackled Rohit Baliyan to take the lead in their favour again at 18-21.

With 13 minutes remaining, Vinod Kumar got a green card for coaching during the raid. Darshan Kadian got a touch point on Parvesh Bhainswal leaving only one man on the mat for Gujarat. Sunil, the Gujarat Fortunegiants captain got tackled in the very next raid, resulting in the first all-out for the Fortunegiants. Suddenly the game had turned in favour of U Muma, 24-21.

With 3 minutes remaining, substitute Mahendra Singh Rajput, turned the tide towards Gujarat with an astonishing 7 points Toofani Super Raid, which got rid of all the 5 men on the court for U Mumba, thereby inflicting the second all-out on the home team. Gujarat had roared back into lead, 34-30.

The Gujarat defence was keeping them in the lead while the U Mumba players looked desperate for a comeback. U Mumba had a couple of back to back tackles on the crossline itself and a Super-10 by Siddharth Desai meant the difference was down to only one point.

In the last raid of the match, the U Mumba defence led by Fazel Atrachali looked determined to tackle Ajay by not letting him a sniff of the cross line. Ajay got a crucial touch-point over Rohit Baliyan and won it for the Fortunegiants.

Rohit Baliyan and Dong Geon Lee in action. [Picture Courtesy: ProKabaddi.com]

Gujarat Fortunegiants remain an unbeatable team in front of U Mumba. This was probably the match of the season so far! In this closely contested, edge of the seat encounter, Gujarat Fortunegiants sneaked to a victory on the basis of a 7-point Super Raid by Mahender Rajput. Both the teams brought their A game to the mat and look set for qualifying for the playoffs.