U Mumba suffered a late scare but eventually prevailed over the Tamil Thalaivas as they secured a 35-32 victory in their Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) 2024 at the Noida Indoor Stadium on November 14, Thursday. It was Manjeet who led the raiding department, scoring 10 points, including eight raid points, for his team alongside Ajit Chouhan’s eight raid points.
U Mumba survive Tamil Thalaivas scare
The first half of the clash saw a dominant performance from U Mumba. In the 6th minute, U Mumba executed a successful ALL OUT, taking out all of the Tamil Thalaivas players on the mat. This gave the Sunil Kumar-led team a significant advantage early in the game as their aggressive and effective play allowed them to take control of the match in the opening period.
U Mumba continued to apply pressure throughout the half. In the 18th minute, U Mumba's Ajit Chouhan pulled off a SUPER RAID, taking out two Tamil Thalaivas defenders. This allowed U Mumba to further extend their lead. By the end of the first half, the score stood at 23-12 in favour of U Mumba, giving them a substantial lead.
The second half saw U Mumba maintain their lead and control of the match, extending it to 10 points with five minutes remaining in the game. It took Sachin Tanwar 24 minutes in the match to score his first point of the match, taking out U Mumba's Amirmohammad Zafardanesh.
Ajit Chouhan and Manjeet worked in tandem to continue the U Mumba’s dominance in the second half. The Tamil Thalaivas did not have an answer for any of the U Mumba’s moves, who were outclassed in every aspect of the game.
The two premier raiders – Narender Kandola and Sachin Tanwar – were not in their usual form as they failed to earn any points throughout the match. It took Sachin 24 minutes to score his first point in the game, and he finished with
With the match coming to an end, the Tamil Thalaivas’ Moein Shafaghi turned to a raider in this game and earned a Super Raid to get Sunil Kumar, Sombir and Manjeet to inflict the ALL OUT on U Mumba. But it was a little too late in the match as U Mumba went on to secure a close three-point win.
Bhavani, Bharat's Super 10s power UP Yoddhas to emphatic win over Telugu Titans
The UP Yoddhas managed to register their first win in five matches, breaking the Telugu Titans' four-game winning streak in a hard-fought PKL contest. A Super 10 from Vijay Malik wasn’t enough to stop the UP Yoddhas, who won by a scoreline of 40-34, courtesy of Super 10s from Bhavani Rajput and Bharat Hooda.
It was a watchful start from the two sides as they waited for the other to make a significant move. It was no surprise that the High-Flyer Pawan Sehrawat took the initiative, scoring four of the first six points for the Telugu Titans to give them a two-point lead.
However, a Super Tackle on Pawan Sehrawat managed to level things up for the UP Yoddhas. A flurry of points gave the UP Yoddhas a three-point lead, before a massive four-point Super Raid from Vijay Malik decimated the UP Yoddhas momentarily, putting the Telugu Titans in the lead once more. They quickly extended their lead to three points after inflicting an ALL OUT on the UP Yoddhas.
UP Yoddhas managed to close the gap to a couple of points in the first half, courtesy of combination of Bhavani Rajput and Bharat Hooda. However, the Telugu Titans stormed right back with a Super Tackle by Ankit, once again extending their lead to four points to close the first half with a score of 20-16.
The UP Yoddhas came storming out of the blocks at the start of the second half to close the gap and make things even. They didn’t waste much time to get their noses in front courtesy of a Super Tackle from Hitesh, inflicting an ALL OUT on the Telugu Titans. Vijay Malik kept the Telugu Titans in the game with some support from his teammates to level things up at 25-points for each side.
The two teams were going toe-to-toe as they headed into the final 10 minutes of play in this contest. That was before the UP Yoddhas took the onus upon themselves and regained a four-point lead. They quickly shut the door for any possibility of a Telugu Titans comeback after Bhavani Rajpat completed his Super 10, inflicting another ALL OUT on the Telugu Titans to extend UP Yoddhas’ lead to eight points. Despite Vijay Kumar’s Super 10 for the Telugu Titans, they couldn’t quite mount a comeback in the closing stages of the game, having lost their skipper Pawan Sehrawat early in the game to an injury. Bharat Hooda became the second raider to pick up a Super 10 for the UP Yoddhas, getting them over the line in a nail-biting contest.
