New Delhi Maintaining his superb form, Siddharth Desai collected 19 raid points and guided U Mumba to a fantastic 41-34 victory over Dabang Delhi in a zone A contest of the ongoing Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) at the Thyagraj stadium here on Saturday.
U Mumba trailed by nine points in the first half but produced a solid performance in the second half. Hosts Dabang Delhi led for most of the match but their defence failed to contain Desai in the second half.
Naveen Kumar scored 12 points for Delhi but just like his team he had a quiet second half.
Delhi’s raiders got into the act early to give their team a 4-1 lead after four minutes. Vinod Kumar got a two-point raid as U Mumba reduced the deficit and trailed 3-4. Naveen and Chandran Ranjit put in successful raids as Dabang Delhi looked the better team and inflicted an all out in the 7th minute to lead 10-5.
U Mumba’s famed defence was having trouble to put in tackles as Naveen was in fine form. Rohit Baliyan put in excellent raids as U Mumba fought back to level the match at 11-11 after 13 minutes.
Naveen had different ideas though as he scored four raid points in five minutes as Delhi inflicted another all out to lead 21-13. At the end of the first half Delhi enjoyed a nine-point lead with the score reading 22-13.
U Mumba could score just two tackle points in the first half with skipper Fazel Atrachali having a really quiet game.
Siddharth got a super raid in at the start of the second half as the visitors started to mount a comeback. Fazel put in a strong tackle on Ranjit as U Mumba trailed 17-22.
Joginder Narwal’s strong tackle on Siddharth got Delhi two more points as it was a super tackle. Delhi led 26-19 after 27 minutes but were down to four men.
Desai made a brilliant super raid in the 30th minute, which got five points for U Mumba as they trailed 25-26. Naveen got his super 10 in the 33rd minute as Dabang Delhi held a slender 29-28 lead.
It was all square at 30-30 with less than four minutes to play as both teams continued to exchange points. U Mumba however, inflicted an all out in the 38th minute to lead 36-32 and that all out confirmed their victory.
A four-point raid by Siddharth in the 39th minute just added gloss to the scoreline as U Mumba asserted their supremacy in style.
(IANS)
