last year’s defending champions U Mumba had no difficulties in cementing their place in the final of the Star Sports Pro Kabaddi league when they defeated Bengal Warriors 41-29 in the semifinals with Warriors offering them little threat. They will now face Patna Pirates on Saturday in a blockbuster final here.
Defending champions U Mumba continued their stellar run as they qualified for their third straight final with a 41-29 win over Bengal Warriors on Friday. Rishank Devadiga top scored with 13 points while Mohit Chhillar won 6 defensive points for his team as they nullified Nitin Tomar's efforts which earned the Warriors 8 points.
Anup Kumar's team came into the match on the back of a 10-match winning run and they took a 3-point lead in as many minutes. The Warriors restored parity in the 6th minute through Mahendra Singh Rajput's raid. Rakesh Kumar, however, restored U Mumba's lead with a successful raid and Nitin Tomar stepped into the lobby without a touch as the Mumbai outfit led 5-3.
Rishank Devadiga inflicted further misery on Nilesh Shinde's team by conjuring up a super raid in the 9th minute. Rajput was tackled in the very next raid as U Mumba completed the first all out of the match to establish a 7-point lead.
The defending champions extended their lead to 18 points at the halfway mark as the Warriors were left with a mountain to climb if they harboured any hopes of making the final.
In other semi-final of the day, Patna Pirates who were on an unbeaten run in the PKl booked their place in the final by beating Puneri Paltan side. The Pune side was all-out on three occasions in the match. The first two came in the first 12 minutes of the match.
Pirates were riding on some brilliant performance by Pardeep Narwal and the evergreen Rohit Kumar Patna Pirates raided with aplomb and looted points galore to rout Puneri Paltan 40-21. The unfinished argument between the two teams where they played out two heart stopping draws finally ended with the Patna Pirates defence also coming to the party.
Both the teams exchanged blows for the first five minutes and were tied at 3 each, but that was just the lull before the storm. The Patna Pirates came roaring out of the blocks after the fifth minute and completed the first all out of the match in the 9th minute when Ajay Thakur surrendered to Pardeep. Rohit Kumar had reduced the Pirates to just 2 men while Manjeet Chhillar was tackled by Sandeep Narwal and Vinod Kumar after which Pardeep applied the finishing touches on the all out.
However, that was just the beginning as Patna took just 3 more minutes to inflict another all out on the Paltan. In the 12th minute, Manjeet Chillar's side had 4 men on the court, but Pardeep slayed them all in a single raid.