U Mumba defeat Bengaluru Bulls, continue to top table

Bengaluru Bulls skipper Manish Chillar trying to break U Mumba’s strong defence.

5th Augist 2014, New Delhi: When the Gods battle, the earth shakes. Such was the case in tonight’s first match, when leading teams UMumba and the Bengaluru Bulls went head to head in New Delhi’s Thyagraj Indoor Stadium. A deafening crowd welcomed both teams to the court, and as the two titans Anup Kumar and Manjit Chillar shook hands for the start of their match, one could feel the hair-raising static energy of the calm before a thunderstorm.

But Ajay Thakur’s empty first raid set the tone for the beginning of the game. With both teams completely wary of the skill of the other, their raids were slow, careful, and tentative, resulting in empty raid after empty raid, with a consistently low, even score. But at the 8-minute mark, UMumba struck home with a 2-point raid by star raider Shabeer Sharfudheen, then taking Ajay out on his subsequent raid, and followed by Anup striking down 2 more Bulls. This left the Bengaluru Bulls with only Parmod Singh remaining, and he was hardpressed to stand up to the might of UMumba, resulting in the first all out of the match and setting the score at 8 to 16, with UMumba leading.

With the point gap growing, tensions rose. In a marked lack of sportsmanship, Captain Manjit Chillar deliberately placed his foot on top of already tackled raider, Rishank Devadiga’s hand and earning himself a Green Card. Manjit’s temper was not enough to move the team to better performance, and more devastating raids from UMumba gave them a 10-point lead at halftime, with the score standing at 13-23.

Within 5 minutes of the second half, UMumba achieved its second all out. Having found their groove, the Mumbai team was unstoppable, taking out the Bengaluru raiders almost every single time, while maintaining a deadly raiding accuracy of their own. At the 31st minute, Bengaluru Bull’s Dharmaraj Cheralathan found himself alone on the field, the sole barrier against UMumba scoring their 3rd all out. Through a beautiful weaving raid, Dharmaraj was able to postpone the all out, but even with the extra teammate, Bengaluru could not fend of the inevitable.

At 37 minutes, a Time Out by the Bengaluru Bulls showed the score at 28 – 45. Rallied, the Bulls were able to score 6 points before the signature steam whistle of the end of the game, but this was only a pinprick in UMumba’s side. The score finalized at 34 to 45, with an 11-point loss by Bengaluru Bulls showing us that the bigger they are, the harder they fall.