With the home-leg advantage, former champions U Mumba looked out for a victory in today's match. Fighting against them, the defending champions Bengaluru Bulls were all set to lock horns with the hot favorites, with the wonder-man Pawan Sehrawat taking the mat against the Iranian wall, Fazel Atrachali.
Read ahead to find out how the much-anticipated face-off between the two former champions, U Mumba and Bengaluru Bulls, proceeded at the DOME NSCI in Mumbai.
Starting 7s:
U Mumba: Fazel Atrachali, Abhishek Singh, Arjun Deshwal, Rohit Baliyan, Harendra Kumar, Surender Singh, Sandeep Narwal.
Bengaluru Bulls: Rohit Kumar, Pawan Kumar Sehrawat, Sumit Singh, Mahender Singh, Saurabh Nandal, Amit Sheoran, Ashish Kumar .
Toss:
U Mumba won the toss and chose the court.
Skipper Rohit Kumar started the proceedings for the Bulls and returned empty-handed. A school-boy error was commited by Abhishek in Mumbai's first raid, he stepped in the lobby and gave away a free point to Bangalore's franchise. Pawan, from the Bulls, surprisingly repeated the same mistake as that of Abhishek, and was sent off the mat after stepping out of the line.
A slow-paced match since the very beginning, both teams played with extreme care. A review was taken by Mumba in the seventh minute, and it was declared successful. It was a night full of self-outs, as Surinder Singh was sent to the bench after he mistakenly went off the bounds.
As the minutes passed, Mumbai were reduced to just two players on the mat. High-flyer Pawan fell victim to a super-tackle after being caught by Mumba's defense.
In the 16th minute of the clash, Mumba reversed their fate on Bulls, bringing them down to just three. Following that, Rohit Baliyan from Mumbai got super-tackled and was sent off to the bench.
At half-time, the score was tilted towards the Bulls by 13-11. Two back-to-back empty raids followed as the second half commenced. However, in the 24th minute of the match, the Bulls suffered an all-out.
U Mumba gradually took hold of the lead and during the 29th minute of the uncertain battle, the scoreboard displayed 21-16. In the middle period of the match, the offense of the Bulls kept on falling short, and hence started creating glitches for the team.
Surprisingly enough, Rohit Kumar got his first raid point of the night in the 34th minute. On the other hand, Sehrawat completed his first super ten of the season, contributing heavily for his team.
Pawan, with his superb skills, tied the score at 23 each in the 37th minute of the encounter. A poor tackle from the experienced Fazel resulted in two more points to Sehrawat, handing the a single-point lead.
In the very last minute, Bulls inflicted an all-out on U Mumba, sealing their victory with the score 30-26. It was a nail-biting encounter, given that both teams tried their best to take hold of the lead. However, in the end, Bulls emerged triumphant, much to the disappointment of the home crowd.
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