Captain Sunil Kumar equals the record for the most wins as a leader

Former Champions U Mumba edged past rampaging Bengaluru Bulls by a narrow margin of two points (34-32) at the Noida Indoor Stadium in the ongoing Pro Kabaddi League. Raiders Manjeet and Ajit Chouhan combined 15 raid points in the tightly contested tie to help U Mumba register their eighth win in 13 outings and retain the second place on the points table behind leaders Haryana Steelers. U Mumba captain Sunil Kumar, playing his 150 match in the process achieved a significant milestone  equalling the record with Iranian Kabaddi legend, Fazel Atrachali (Bengal Warriorz)  for the most wins under his belt – 73 , as captain in PKL history.

Earlier U Mumba got off the blocks quickly with Manjeet and Ajit Chouhan scoring raid points, while Sombir tackled Pardeep Narwal. With their main raider off the mat, Bengaluru Bulls found themselves with a four-point deficit in the early exchanges of the contest. U Mumba couldn’t quite make that count as they would have liked though.

With Narwal returning to the mat, the Bengaluru Bulls came back strongly to close the gap down to two points. The tempo of the game slowed down reasonably after the first 10 minutes, as the two sides resorted to the Do-or-Die Raid strategy. U Mumba executed the strategy wonderfully with their defense on top, to once again extend their lead to five points.

Chouhan delivered a killer blow to the Bengaluru Bulls, with a two-point raid and inflicted an ALL OUT in the process to extend U Mumba’s lead into double digits. A dominant performance, most notably from Chouhan and Rinku helped U Mumba hold onto their lead going into half-time, with the scoreline at 18-10.

On resumption Sombir got the first tackle successfully against Narwal before his co-raider Manjeet followed it up with a two-point raid for U Mumba, keeping them well and truly in control in the second half as well. Defensive efforts from Arulnanthababu and Naveen kept the scoreboard ticking for the Bengaluru Bulls, but it wasn’t significant enough to help them close the gap.

Rohit Raghav bagged a two-point raid for U Mumba on a Do-or-Die Raid and then went on to tackle Narwal on a Do-or-Die Raid of his own. Despite Arulnanthababu completing his Hi-5, it seemed like U Mumba would be running away with this contest. However, the Bengaluru Bulls raised their game and managed to close the gap to five points.

With a little over five minutes to go, the southern outfit came right back in the contest courtesy of a two-point raid by Narwal, with an ALL OUT on U Mumba. With only one point separating the two sides, the tension was palpable and it became a back-and-forth contest as the game came down to the wire.

The two teams were back on level terms with under four minutes to go in the contest. Bengaluru Bulls soon got their first lead of the night as Sushil carried on his impressive raiding run on a Do-or-Die Raid, and all-rounder Nitin Rawal tackled Raghav to turn the game on its head. It was advantage Bengaluru Bulls with under a minute to go in the game, before Manjeet executed a Super Tackle on Sushil, who was on a Do-or-Die Raid, putting U Mumba ahead by one point. The star U Mumba raider once again came in clutch on a Do-or-Die Raid of his own, with a successful final raid to help Sunil Kumar lead  side clinch a thrilling 34-32 win, their second in space of a week against the same rivals again. U Mumba earlier had won by a narrow score line of 38-37 in another tight contest.

U Mumba which had lost their previous encounter narrowly to Telugu Titans 29-31 last week, their fourth loss in PKL Season 11, next take on third place Telugu Titans in their next outing on Thursday 28 November, 2024, while Bengaluru Bulls confined to the bottom of the twelve team league will face a formidable Patna Pirates, who have earlier won the PKL title thrice On Saturday, 30 November, 2024 in their bid to end their seven match losing streak.

Top Performers

U Mumba: Best Raider - Ajit Chouhan (7 raid points); Best Defender - Rinku (4 tackle points)

Bengaluru Bulls: Best Raider - Sushil (8 raid points) ; Best Defender - Arulnanthababu (5 tackle points)

PKL Season 11 match schedule on Tuesday, 26 November

Match 1:  UP Yoddhas Vs Tamil Thalaivas – 8 pm 

Match 2:  Dabang Delhi K.C. Vs Patna Pirates – 9 pm  

Photo Cover: U Mumba defender Sunil Kumar in his 150th match equalled the record for most wins as captain in Pro Kabaddi League history with 73 wins.

Photo Above: An action packed moment from the PKL Season 11 tie between U Mumba (Orange Jersey) and Bengaluru Bulls (Photos courtesy U Mumba / PKL)