pro kabaddi
U Mumba team in a file photoIANS

This was expected to be a good match between two good teams, but led by an inspirational captain Fazel Atrachalli, U Mumba registered a magnificent 47-21 win over Jaipur Pink Panthers. The stars of the win were raider Abhishek Singh who scored 13 points as well as defender Fazel Atrachalli who managed 6 points in defence. 

The match was decided in the first half itself as the Jaipur team took a big lead in the 10th minute by inflicting an all-out and going 10-4 ahead. Deepak Hooda, captain and star raider of the Jaipur team, was out of form and was getting tackled easily. 

At one stage, the score read an astonishing 20-4 in favour of Mumbai-based team. But there was a revival as Pink Panthers reduced the gap by three points. However, a successful tackle of Deepak Hooda ended this mini-revival. 

The first half ended with the score at 23-7. The Jaipur-based side would have expected an improvement in the second half but things only went from bad to worse as the successful tackling of the U Mumba continued. What was most interesting was the fact that before every raid, captain Fazel Atrachalli was giving instructions to his raiders. 

In the post-match press-conference, the Iranian revealed that he was telling his raiders to not take any unnecessary risks and let the Jaipur team make the move. Apparently, the team believes in playing according to a plan and it was working beautifully in this match. 

Interestingly, though the Pink Panthers never looked like making a comeback, they were able to get two super tackles when reduced to three players. This prevented an all-out but only temporarily. Whenever one of these super tackles took place, they were followed by successful tackles from the other team which nullified even the whisker of a recovery from Abhishek Bachchan-owned side. 

In the end, this Pro Kabaddi League match finished with a scoreline that depicted the one-sided nature of the game. U Mumba won 47-21. The exclamation mark ws put on the game by the last raid from the side of the winning team. Abhishek Singh, who already had nine points in the game, pulled off a super raid by eliminating four players. He ended with 13 points while fellow raider Arjun Deshwal scored six. 

Apart from the captain Atrachalli, another great performer in the defence was Harendra Kumar who scored five points. With their defence looking strong and the raiders also playing well, U Mumba would be a difficult team to beat. 

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