Pro Kabaddi League 2017: U Mumba outfox UP Yoddhas; Jaipur Pink Panthers pick nervous win over Bengaluru Bulls

Lucknow: U Mumba bounced back in style to beat UP Yoddha 37-34 in the opening tie of the Lucknow leg of the Pro Kabaddi League’s (PKL) fifth season at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium on Friday. The first half of the tie witnessed domination by the home side before the visitors clawed back, thanks to Shabeer Bapu’s 13-raid points and skipper Anup Kumar’s eight points. Rishank Devadiga scored 14 points for UP Yoddha but it wasn’t enough for the home side to get over the line in their maiden home encounter. [caption id=“attachment_3948051” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] U Mumba captain Anup Kumar in action. Image Courtesy: PKL official website[/caption] Skipper Nitin Tomar gave the hosts a perfect start with the first raid of the match, before young gun Rishank Devadiga came up with a stunning piece of play to add three more points and make it 4-0. The visitors opened their account, thanks to star raider and Mumba skipper Anup Kumar’s successful raid point. But Tomar gained another raid point for the hosts as U.P. lead by 5-1 before Rishank extended their lead to 6-2. An all-out was inflicted on U Mumba in the ninth minute as they trailed 4-12. The visitors, on a comeback trail, took down Rishank and Mahesh Goud while Shabeer Bapu made it a two point game by winning a touch point during his raid. Shabeer once again starred for the visitors, by getting rid of two Yoddha defenders during his raid as Mumba trailed by just 3 points at the break. After the break U Mumba bounced back strongly as they inflicted an all-out in the first minute to level the game at 16-16. U Mumba stretched their lead to 19-17 in the 22nd minute as they sent Tomar to the bench. Rishank scored two points for UP as they led 20-19 after 25 minutes. Rishank scored three points in the 26th minute as UP led 23-22 but Darshan Kadian responded with a two-point raid in the next minute to get the lead back for the visiting side. UP Yoddha then inflicted the second all-out in the 30th minute to lead 29-26. But Shabeer with his 11th point of the match in the 32nd minute helped U Mumba reduce the gap to 28-31. Darshan got another two-point raid in the 34th minute as U Mumba levelled the match at 31-31. With less than five minutes to go, U Mumba inflicted their second all-out to lead 35-31. UP Yoddha cut the deficit to two points as they trailed 33-35 after 37 minutes even as U Mumba held their nerves in the final two minutes of the match to clinch the tie 37-34. In the second tie of the day, Jaipur Pink Panthers pipped Bengaluru Bulls 30-28 in a thrilling match. Jaipur rode on terrific raids from Jasvir Singh (10 points) and a rock-solid defensive display from birthday boy Manjeet Chhillar (8) to hold their nerve and gain a much-needed win. It was Jaipur Pink Panthers’ second win of the campaign whereas Bengaluru Bulls crashed to their fifth defeat. Jaipur began strongly as they led 5-2 after minutes with their defence inflicting damage on Bengaluru raiders. Bengaluru were a bit slow to begin with but star raider Rohit Kumar brought them back into the game with a do-or-die raid in the 15th minute to draw level at 8-8. Bengaluru inflicted an all-out in the next minute as Rohit scored two more points to give his team a 12-8 lead. Thereafter, Jasvir came with up an incredible super raid in the 16th minute as Jaipur made it 11-12 before sharing the spoils at 12-12 in the 19th minute. Jaipur immediately forced an all-out in the 20th minute to go into the break leading 17-14. Coming back, Jasvir scored his eighth raid point in the 23rd minute as Jaipur led 19-14, before Manjeet attained a high-five to stretch their lead to 21-14 after 27 minutes. Jaipur inflicted another all-out in the 29th minute to lead 26-16 to dominate the first 10 minutes of the second half. Bengaluru’s defence managed just four tackle points in the first 30 minutes of the match. Two tackle points by Bengaluru reduced the deficit to eight points as they trailed 20-27 after 34 minutes. In the last five minutes, Bengaluru’s challenge was to reduce the defeat margin to seven or less points to which Ajay Kumar responded with a raid point in the 39th minute to trail 23-29. Jaipur were reduced to just one man as Bengaluru launched a comeback and trailed 25-29. Towards the end, Bengaluru inflicted an all-out to reduce the deficit to just one point but Jaipur survived a scare, thanks to Jasvir’s raid point in the last second of the match to win 30-28.