JOIN USA dominant U Mumba consolidated their position at the top of the table as the Anup Kumar-led side beat Patna Pirates 32-27 to register its eleventh win in Season 2 of the Pro Kabaddi league here today.
Patna though, who need to win their remaining two matches to stay afloat in the tournament, had the consolation of snatching a solitary point for the less than seven point margin of defeat.
U Mumba, who had beaten Patna 25-20 in the first-leg match, were slow to get off the blocks but gained pace as the match progressed. Pirates captain Sandeep started well with a rare pursuit that had Anup eliminated. A two pointer by Gurvinder saw them go ahead 4-0.
But the table-toppers, with 55 points, clawed back into the game and inflicted an all-out. Defender Mohit Chhillar got them going with a super tackle on Deepak Narwal. Shabeer Babu back after along break due to injury gave them a two-pointer to give further momentum. At 6-6 they had caught up with the Pirates.
Rishank Devadiga the do-or-die raid specialist gave them two points and Vishal Mane's not too kind push on Amit Hooda saw the first of the two all-outs Patna suffered. That came in the 11th minute with the score at 12-6.
Not to be outdone by the aggressiveness of their opponents, Pirates kept the scoreboard ticking to be within catching distance of their opponents. Patna stayed in the match trailing 12-15 at the breather.
The second half too was exciting but Mumba were again able to remain at least 4-5 points clear of their rivals. Following the trend, Anup came back after spending almost 13 minutes on the bench to start his patent time-wasting tactics and also score at the same time. He had a tally of seven in the end.
Rishank managed to score five and the strong Mumba defence manned by Mohit and Surender Nada, both as strong as ever contributed six and five respectively.
For the Pirates substitute Vijay Malik did a good job after replacing an injured Deepak. He narrowed down the margin to 22-18 but three consecutive successful raids by Anup guided Mumba to a second all-out. In the 39th minute at 29-18 the battle was lost for Patna.
At 29-27 and less than two minutes left their hopes were dashed by Anup after he came back after two dismissals. And the last raid by Vijay Malik saw Mohit Chhillar trap him to cap a fine performance on Independence day.