Panchkula, U Mumba edged out Tamil Thalaivas 36-32 in a thrilling encounter at a Pro Kabaddi League match at the Tau Devilal Sports Complex here to move to the fourth spot in the points table on Monday.
Both U Mumba and Tamil Thalaivas started the game on a cautious note rather than blazing all guns.
Athul M.S. got two points in a single raid but V. Ajith Kumar pulled up a similar effort to level the scoreline at 5-all. M. Abishek successfully tackled Abhishek Singh and Dong Geon Lee in succession but Fazel Atrachali’s quick thinking in reviewing Rahul Chaudhari’s raid, who went into the lobby without a touch in a Super Tackle position, brought U Mumba back into the contest.
Athul again completed a two-point raid to put U Mumba ahead marginally but the raiders and defenders of Tamil Thalaivas kept their calm to level the score at 9-all again.
But, Abhishek Singh was alert enough in his raids and bagged four points spread over four raids to give U Mumba 15-11 lead at halftime. He continued from where he left by taking out Hemant Chauhan in his first raid as the teams changed sides.
U Mumba soon inflicted the first All-Out of the game on Tamil Thalaivas to extend their lead to eight points.
Atrachali, who was slightly off-colour in the first half, put two successive tackles on Chaudhari with his signature backholds to announce his arrival into the game. Raiders Athul and Abhishek Singh drew inspiration from their captain as U Mumba continued trading blows with Tamil Thalaivas while maintaining their eight-point lead all the way up to 30-22.
Ajith Kumar bagged two touch points as U Mumba found themselves down to two men. But, a Super Tackle initiated by substitute Mohit Balyan kept them safe at an arm’s length from Tamil Thalaivas.
Ajith Kumar brought U Mumba down to a single man thrice but Sandeep Narwal delayed the inevitable by picking up solo raid points in each of his three raids in the dying minutes of the game. He finally got tackled in the last raid of the contest for Tamil Thalaivas to inflict an All-Out.
But, it proved to be a mere consolation as U Mumba won the tie.
