Super sub Abolfazl Maghsodloumahali leads U Mumbai to its first-ever win over Gujarat Fortunegiants in Pro Kabaddi League history in an epic clash between the two sides here at Thyagaraj Stadium in New Delhi on Sunday.
On the bank of their thrilling comeback win over host Dabang Delhi on Saturday, U Mumba showcased yet another superb all-round show on Sunday to beat season 5 finalists Fortunegiants 36-26 in the top-of-the-table clash.
With this win, U Mumba leads the Zone A table with 72 points from 18 games, while their compatriot Gujarat is second with 63 points from 16 games.
In the five games played till date in PKL between the two sides, Gujarat got better of their opponents on each occasion but on Sunday, Mumba had some other plans and their players, especially defence came together as a strong unit to grab the golden chance with both hands to not only secure its first-ever win over their neighbour opponents but also consolidate lead at the top.
In what was expected to be a tight battle between the strong defensive units of both sides, Mumba started well by holding K Prapanjan in the very first raid of the match and in the immediate next star raider, Siddharth Desai touch point over Rohit Gulia adds to Mumba's lead.
Inspired by the strong start, Mumba players quickly gain the momentum and within first five minutes of the game, they sent Gujarat packing into the dugout enforcing first all out.
At that moment, the scorecard was reading 9-4 in Mumba's favour.
However, after the initial setback, Manpreet revived Gujarat's gameplan and the team started more cautiously in terms of avoiding mistakes and not let their opponent gain easy points.
In the next 15 minutes of the first half, there was a strong battle for every single point as Fortunegiants made every attempt possible to reduce the point's gap.
They even managed to silence their skipper Fazel Atrachali and tournament's leading raider Siddharth Desai for most of the part.
But Mumba's strong defence was in full form and despite playing the majority of the game with 5 players active in the mat; they didn't let the lead slip away.
At the end of the first half, Mumba was leading by 17-14.
In the second half of the game, both the teams entered the mat with the new strategy of pressurizing their opponents by not leaking points and forcing raiders to take risks in the do or die raids.
This game plan worked well even for both the teams as in the first six minutes, no raider was able to take any touch point.
But in the 28th minute, Sachin Vittala's and Prapanjan bad move to catch Siddharth Desai shifts the momentum once again in Mumba's favour. And he leads Mumba's charge to all-out Gujarat once again to virtually seal match in Mumba's favour. At that time the scorecard was 27-17 and Mumba has a complete ten point gap which was nearly impossible for Gujarat to break.
In the next few raids, Mumba tried to slow the pace of the game by doing long empty raids but looking the time slipping away fast, Gujarat paced their moves and at a point, they were on the verge of Mumba's first packing in the game.
But then Abolfazl entered the mat as a revival for Rohit Rana and from their onwards after securing two back to back bonus points he joined hands with his remaining teammate to enforce the first super-tackle of the match to not only add two valuable points in his team's scorecard but also avoid an all-out that could have led to another episode.
And then Mumba slowed the pace of the game to complete the remaining proceedings and seal their first ever win over Gujarat in six games.
While in the other game of the day, boosted by the comeback of their star raider Meraj Sheykh local side Dabang Delhi beat Puneri Paltan 35-24 to keep their hopes alive of making into the playoffs.
For Delhi, Naveen Kumar and Meraj fetch seven points each in raiding while Vishal Mane and Ravinder Pahal secure four and three tackle points respectively.
For Puneri Paltan, Deepak Kumar Dahiya fights alone and manage to get the only Super ten of the day.