Young Bhupender Singh turned out to be the hero for U Mumba as he powered his team to a thrilling 27-22 win over Dabang Delhi in the STAR Sports ProKabaddi here on Saturday.
U Mumba was down 20-21 with less than six minutes to go. But then Anup Kumar got the all-important all-out with two victims to send his side up 24-21 with the clock showing four minutes remaining. Dabang led 14-11 at the half-way stage.
After clinching its seventh win in a row, U Mumba is now at the top with 35 points, a tally which is sure to give it a last four berth. Dabang earned a point to go up to 16 points and maintain fourth position.
Bhupender’s super show has given U Mumba another option but Shabeer’s lack of form is a definite reason for worry for the current leaders.
It was the heroics of the tall Bhupender which gave a cutting edge to U Mumba’s attack. He came in when his side was 9-6 behind. Coming in as substitute, Bhupender succeeded in first creating a big impression with a super raid to equalise and then went on to score 7 points from 10 raids to boost U Mumba’s score when it was searching for options with three raiders — Shabeer Bapu, Risahank Devadiga and captain Anup — on the bench.
Dabang, which had suffered a loss at the hands of host Patna Pirates on Friday, kept the rival defence under constant pressure with Rohit Kumar Choudhary and Kashiling Adake earning points at will.
In the first half, the duo contributed three points each, but the real surprise came from Dabang captain Ravinder Singh Pahal who had six successful tackles till then. His tally of nine for the match is a record he shares with Jeeva Kumar of U Mumba.
The results: U Mumba 27 bt Dabang Delhi 22; Patna Pirates 32 bt Puneri Paltan 28. —PTI
