U Mumba handed Gujarat Fortunegiants their first loss in VIVO Pro Kabaddi Season 7 at the Dome@NSCI SVP Stadium in Mumbai, on Friday. Rohit Baliyan’s Super raid and Surinder’s four-point mega raid in the second half had a huge say on the outcome of the match.
Both defences stood tough throughout the first half, and that didn’t allow the raiders to settle early on. After U Mumba took a 2-0 lead, Rohit Gulia got us back into the match with two raid points. Surinder Singh was on top form, and together with Fazel Atrachali never allowed us to gather any momentum.
They constantly put pressure on Sachin and Rohit as the duo either got back empty-handed, or tackled and sent off the mat. Ankit tackled Arjun to draw us level at 5-5 but More G B, Sunil Kumar and Rohit Gulia were all sent to the bench in quick succession.
With three defenders on the mat, Ankit, once again, got us back into the game with a stunning tackle on Abhishek, however, Fazel Atrachali tackled Sachin in the do-or-die raid at the stroke of half-time.
Sachin had an off day, returning with no raid points in the first half, as we headed into the break with the scoreline reading 9-7 in favour of U Mumba.
Right at the start of the second half, Parvesh stamped his authority by tackling Abhishek Singh but More G B was tackled at the other end by Surinder Singh in a do-or-die raid. It was a seesaw battle, however, our raiders couldn’t cause much damage.
The Giants were reduced to two, after Arjun tackled Parvesh, and eventually U Mumba inflicted another all out of in the 26th minute.
Manpreet Singh substituted Harmanjit Singh for Sachin Tanwar and the move paid dividends. The debutant took some important raid points in the middle.
Harmanjit proved to be a real threat and at one point, it looked like the Giants were on course of a comeback when they were trailing by just three points. However, U Mumba got an all important super tackle, getting Harmanjit, before Surinder took a 4-point raid to crush our hopes.
With Surinder’s heroic raid, U Mumba took complete charge of the match, eventually winning the match by 12 points.
Despite a disappointing result, Harmanjit’s performance was the silver lining on a gloomy night in Mumbai.
Full Time: 32-20
With three wins and a solitary loss, the Giants remain fourth on the table with 15 points. Now, the Pro Kabaddi action shifts to Patna where we face Puneri Paltan at the Patliputra Sports Complex on 5th August. We fully expect our boys to come back even stronger in the next leg.