U Mumba 29-28 Jaipur Pink Panthers; The hosts start Pro Kabaddi with a closely-contested victory

U Mumba won the first match against Jaipur Pink Panthers

The first match of the second season of Star Sports Pro Kabaddi saw U Mumba emerge victorious in a narrow 29-28 win over defending champions Jaipur Pink Panthers. Vishal Mane was the star player for the hosts as he defended with aplomb to ensure they started their home campaign with a win.

The match started with the Most Valuable Player of the first season, Anup Kumar going in to raid for U Mumba, which turned out to be fruitless. The first points of the match went to the hosts as Rishank Devadiga got Rajesh Narwal out in the team’s second raid. However, Panthers captain Navneet Gautam got his counterpart out with a sensational ankle hold to level the score.

From then on, Mumbai went on the front foot as they raced to a 7-2 lead through a Shabeer Bapu raid that yielded Mumbai 3 points. Anup Kumar, who was having an off-day, failed to make the most of just 2 Jaipur defenders and got out after stepping out of the court during his raid.

A moment of controversy saw Jaipur’s Jasvir Singh claim a point, but the referee disagreeing. However, Surender Nada had stepped on the yellow box and both teams were awarded a point. The best raid of the match saw captain Anup get 2 defenders out by stretching out his right foot despite being held at the chest. The panthers roared back strongly to take the lead through a Rajesh Narwal raid, but star defender Jeeva Kumar held Jaipur’s Jasvir Singh to level the score again.

In the final minute, with the defending champions leading 16-15, Jeeva came out with another super tackle to make sure the hosts went in the half-way break leading at 16-15.

A topsy-turvy second half

All-rounder Kuldeep Singh got the first points of the second half through a raid to level the score at 16 a piece. U Mumba’s Jeeva Kumar was yet again in the thick of the action as he got Jasvir Singh out with only 3 Mumbai defenders on the field. The scoreboard read 19-16 in Mumbai’s favour.

Under the guidance of new coach Bhaskaran Edachery, U Mumba slowly took a 4-point lead to keep the scoreline at 21-17. However, after an empty raid by Jaipur’s Ran Singh, Rishank was caught out by the reigning champions.

In the 32^nd minute, the referee called an official timeout after Jasvir Singh was adjudged to have stepped out in a bid to get Shabeer Bapu out. However, the Jaipur players’ protests were upheld and Bapu was adjugded to be out as the scoreline read 23-20 in Mumbai’s favour. Slowly chipping at the gap in the score, Jaipur Pink Panthers took the lead when in the 34^th minute, Jaipur got all the Mumbai players out and the score swung from Mumbai leading 23-21 to Jaipur taking the lead at 24-23.

With 6 minutes, left on the clock, both the teams had all their players on the court as a solitary point separated both the teams. A brilliant combination by defenders Jeeva Kumar and Vishal Mane restricted Jaipur raider Sonu Narwal from returning back to his half to level the score with less than 5 minutes to go. In the 38^th minute, local boy Rishank put the home team in the lead with an acrobatic raid as despite slipping, he managed to return back to his half.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man; Anup Kumar in his penultimate raid touched a defender and leaped over another to get his fingertips across the line and put U Mumba in the lead. Jasvir Singh was caught out in the corresponding raid as Mumbai took a 3-point lead with the final raid to go. Anup was pushed out before he could cross the halfway line this time.

Mumbai get 5 points for the win, while Jaipur will also get 1 point for losing by less than 7 points.

Man of the match: Jeeva Kumar