Defending champions U Mumba continued their stellar run as they qualified for their third straight final with a 41-29 win over Bengal Warriors. Rishank Devadiga top scored with 13 points while Mohit Chhillar won 6 defensive points for his team as they nullified Nitin Tomar’s efforts which earned the Warriors 8 points.
Anup Kumar’s team came into the match on the back of a 10-match winning run and they took a 3-point lead in as many minutes. The Warriors restored parity in the 6th minute through Mahendra Singh Rajput’s raid. Rakesh Kumar, however, restored U Mumba’s lead with a successful raid and Nitin Tomar stepped into the lobby without a touch as the Mumbai outfit led 5-3.
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Rishank Devadiga inflicted further misery on Nilesh Shinde’s team by conjuring up a super raid in the 9th minute. Rajput was tackled in the very next raid as U Mumba completed the first all out of the match to establish a 7-point lead.
The relentless U Mumba continued their domination after Fazel Atrachali delivered three consecutive successful tackles to send Jang Kun Lee, Nitin Tomar and Umesh Mhatre to the bench while Rishank won 2 points as Bengal Warriors stared at yet another all out. The lone warrior on the mat, Rajput returned successfully from his raid, but Anup broke Bengal Warriors’ resilience and completed the all out in the 15th minute to make it 22-6 in favour of U Mumba.
The defending champions extended their lead to 18 points at the halfway mark as the Warriors were left with a mountain to climb if they harboured any hopes of making the final.
HT: U Mumba 26-8 Bengal Warriors
The team in blue were reduced to 3 men by the 22nd minute, but Umesh Mhatre got substitute Shabeer Bappu out via a super tackle. Both the teams exchanged blows till the 26th minute before Anup Kumar won 2 points in as many raids and Shyam Kumar Sah’s unsuccessful raid resulted in a third all out on the Warriors. U Mumba now led Bengal Warriors 35-12 after 27 minutes.
The next 9 minutes saw the Bengal Warriors put up a marvellous effort as they went on a 14-3 run, which included the defending champions suffering an all out. Nitin Tomar and Vineet Sharma were the architects behind this streak and they left Bhaskaran Edachery’s team to defend a 12-point lead with 4 minutes remaining on the clock.
As the game wore on, Anup Kumar slowed the game down and his coach called a timeout to put a stop to Bengal’s run. This break proved to be the end of Bengal’s brave fight as U Mumba held on to their 12-point lead till the end to make it their 11th win in a row.
Bengal Warriors will now fight it out with Puneri Paltan for the third place while U Mumba will look to defend their title against Patna Pirates tomorrow.
FT: U Mumba 41-29 Bengal Warriors
