A resilient U Mumba secured their third victory on the trot as they defeated a fighting Bengal Warriors 39-37 in a Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) match at the SDAT Indoor Stadium here on Sunday.
Leading U Mumba's charge was Iranian Amirmohammad Zafardanesh who grabbed eight points.
Earlier, Sombir stopped Maninder in his tracks to get his team off the mark before Guman Singh and Zafardanesh opened the account for U Mumba. Guman was especially impressive, sending Darpan and Vaibhav Garje off the mat with his raids.
In a do-or-die raid for the Kolkata-based team, Maninder showed his prowess to earn a bonus point and the star raider also got the opponent skipper Surinder Singh off the mat to equal the score.
Shrikant Jadhav entered the points tally after the time-out to get Rinku eliminated, but the U Mumba players never gave up on getting crucial points.
Then, U Mumba defenders, led by Mahender and his skipper Surinder, pulled off three consecutive Super Tackles to take the lead over the Warriors as the scores read 18-15 heading into half-time.
The Warriors clawed their way back into the game early, getting U Mumba team All Out with some impressive raids and defensive tactics.
U Mumba did well to get themselves back on level terms while Maninder also created his own piece of history.
With a raid to eliminate Surinder, he earned his 1300th raid point in PKL, just the second to do so after the legendary Pardeep Narwal, who has 1611 raid points to date.
But one player who shone was Harsh Lad, making his first start for the Warriors.
Lad displayed his prowess ending multiple raids of the U Mumba. He got six points in eight attempts from the left corner, keeping his team ahead of their opponents to the very end.
As the match went on, U Mumba used the Super Tackle to their advantage to drag themselves back into the game.
They brought on Zafardanesh at the most important moment of the clash, and immediately, the all-rounder lifted the team over the Warriors.
U Mumba sealed the victory over the Warriors with an All Out in the final minutes of the match.
