After the Monday break in Pro Kabaddi League, U Mumba will take on the Gujarat Fortunegiants in their fourth home match at the Dome, NSCI in Mumbai.
When the two teams locked horns against each other earlier in the tournament, Gujarat Fortunegianst handed a big 39-21 defeat to the champions of the second edition.
Now, both teams are coming off contrasting results from their last match in this encounter. While U Mumba lost their last match by a slender margin of just one point against Dabang Delhi, the Fortunegiants claimed yet another big win of 35-21 over Puneri Paltan back in Lucknow.
The Mumbai team has been struggling with its defence for a considerable period now with the lack of experienced players due to the absence of Joginder Narwal and Suresh Kumar owing to injury. The young guns in the likes of Surinder and N Renjith have been impressive but only in glimpses and fail to power the team across to the finish line. The bright lining of the team has been the fact that their young raiders in the likes of Darshan, Srikanth Jadhav have come good in the last couple of matches alongside skipper Anup Kumar and Kashiling Adake. Kuldeep Singh and Hadi Oshtorak need to make greater contributions to the scoreline if the team is to succeed.
On the other hand, the Gujarat Fortunegiants amongst the four new teams have had the best record so far in the league and are on a 7-match unbeaten streak. The two Iranian corner defenders Fazel Atrachali and Abozar Mighani have been performing for the team at their best possible level and are supported by the young Indian cover defender duo of Sunil and Parvesh Bhainswal. The raiding department is spearheaded by the skipper, Sukesh Hegde who has considerable amount pressure off his shoulders due to the kind of form that his supporting raiders, Rohit Gulia and especially Sachin have showcased in recent times.
U Mumba vs Gujarat Fortunegiants prediction
If one has to call the match it would definitely tilt in favour of the Gujarat Fortunegiants given the kind of form the team has been in and on the flipside the struggle that U Mumba has showcased in getting the due results on the mat. The U Mumba raiders will find it difficult to penetrate through the formidable rival defence which boasts of Iranian might while Gujarat raiders will relish the opportunity of going rampant against the U Mumba defence which has been the weak link of the side.