Pro Kabaddi League 2018: U Mumba ease past Puneri Paltan; Bengaluru Bulls top Zone B after win over UP Yoddha

Greater Noida: U Mumba finally won the Maharashtra derby against Puneri Paltan with a 31-22 scoreline in the Pro Kabaddi League in Greater Noida on Saturday. Puneri Paltan had drawn and lost the last two contests against U Mumba. Fazel Atrachali had a near flawless match as he got 4 tackle points from his 5 tackle attempts. More GB of Puneri Paltan and Vinod Kumar shocked the opponents as they got 4 and 3 tackle points even though they are raiders for their respective teams. [caption id=“attachment_5499991” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] U Mumba recorded a comfortable win over rivals Puneri Paltan in the Pro Kabaddi League. Image Courtesy: PKL[/caption] Girish Ernak had a mediocre performance as he only got 1 tackle point from 3 tackle attempts. Fazel Atrachali was given the Orange Sleeve for hoarding the highest number of tackle points this season after Saturday’s incredible performance. Deepak Kumar Dahiya started the match with a running hand touch on Surender Singh to open the floodgates but this was overturned by U Mumba in the next 4 minutes. U Mumba took the lead and kept a gap of 4 points by the 5th minute to make it 5-1. With two men on the mat, Puneri Paltan got a strong Super Tackle by Monu on Darshan Kadian to make it 5-3 in the 6th minute. Puneri Paltan tried to get touch and tackle points to regain their full strength but was All Out in the 11th minute raid by Abhishek Singh. Atrachali was the star for U Mumba as he got 4 tackle points in as many tackles. The half ended with U Mumba leading by 9 points with the scoreline at 19-10. The second half saw Puneri Paltan try to change their tactics as they worked on their defense to reduce the gap through Super Tackles. Shubham Shinde got an ankle hold on Vinod Kumar while More pulled him from reaching the midline in the first raid of the half to get a Super Tackle. They continued with this technique as they reduced a 9 point lead in the start to a 4 point lead by the 30th minute by regularly picking up Super Tackles. Pune continued to have just three men on the mat for a while. The 32nd minute raid by Abhishek Singh became the catalyst for U Mumba to inflict an All Out on Pune as he got both Ravi Kumar and Sandeep Narwal. This raid was reviewed by Puneri Paltan as they believed that the raider was pushed out of the mat before he crossed the midline with his hand, only to notice in the replays that his body was still in the lobby. The next raid saw Surender Singh dash Deepak Dahiya out of the mat and complete the procedure of an All Out to make it 28-18. Bulls continue dream run  Bengaluru Bulls continued their impressive run by winning their fifth match in Pro Kabaddi League and top the Zone B table. Rohit Kumar was the saviour for Bengaluru Bulls as he saved them from being all out on three occasions after he was the only player left on the mat for his team. He tallied up 14 points for his team and take them to the victory. Prashant Kumar Rai had an average performance while Sachin Kumar and Nitesh Kumar tried their best to dominate the raiders of Bengaluru with 4 tackle points each. UP Yoddha were entering the match after being thrashed by Tamil Thalaivas the previous night while Bengaluru Bulls were starting on a positive note after their close win over Patna Pirates. It looked like they had embraced and learnt from yesterday’s match as they dominated Bengaluru Bulls in the first few raids as they took a 5-0 lead on them by the 3rd minute. Bengaluru Bulls opened their score with a Super Tackle effort by Ashish Sangwan on Prashant Kumar Rai in the 5th minute to make it 5-2. Bengaluru Bulls continued to use this tactic as they equalized with UP Yoddha by the 8th minute with another Super Tackle by Sandeep on Shrikant Jadhav to make it 7-7. UP Yoddha reduced Bengaluru Bulls to one man, Rohit Kumar, but his resilience saved Bengaluru from an All Out in the 11th minute with a Super Raid by getting Nitish Kumar, Sachin Kumar and a bonus point. He did this once again in his 14th minute raid to get Jeeva Kumar out cheaply and take the lead by 12-13. He couldn’t do it a third time as he ran out of time to reach the midline and hence conceded an All Out and make it 16-14 in favour of UP Yoddha. The half ended with UP Yoddha leading Bengaluru Bulls by 5 points at 20-15. Bengaluru Bulls continued their great first half’s form to the second half to constantly reduce the gap. Rahul Chodhary had a bad night with entering the lobby and conceding a Self Out on 2 previous occasions but he made an impact in the 22nd minute to get a strong ankle hold on Shrikant Jadhav to start the on slaught and make it 21-16. They reduced it to a 2 point lead by the 25th minute with 22-20 on the score board. The 29th minute saw Rohit Kumar finally get his first Super 10 of the season as he got Sagar Krishna ushered to the bench with a hand touch and make it 24-22. The 31st minute saw UP Yoddha concede an All Out after a great game and hand the lead to Bengaluru Bulls after Rohit Kumar got Prashant Kumar Rai and Sagar Krishna out and make it 25-28. Raju Lal Choudhary hammered Shrikant Jadhav with a great dash from behind his back and push him out of the mat in the 33rd minute and make it 25-31. Rishank Devadiga entered the match in the 34th minute to try and change the situation but failed as Bengaluru Bulls didn’t let the lead reduce immensely. Pawan Sehrawat got an amazing raid in the 39th minute to get Nitesh Kumar and Narender and thus get two strong defenders out of three out of the equation. With inputs from Press Trust of India