PKL 2023-24: U Mumba begin home leg in style by beating Bengaluru Bulls, Dabang Delhi beat Patna Pirates

U Mumba got their home leg off to a rollicking start as they earned a commanding 40-35 win over Bengaluru Bulls in the Pro Kabaddi League Season 10 match at the DOME by NSCI in Mumbai. U Mumba’s Bittu, making his PKL debut, impressed with 6 tackle points.

Buoyed by a boisterous home crowd, U Mumba went all guns blazing from the first raid and inflicted an ALL OUT as early as the 7th minute. Guman Singh and Amirmohammad Zafardanesh picked points at will and the U Mumba defence was rock-solid as Bittu’s tackle on Aman put U Mumba ahead 11-3.

Bengaluru Bulls were forced to play catch up thereon. Their first tackle point came only in the 11th minute and that summed up their defensive show as they struggled to contain U Mumba’s three-pronged raiding unit. Bulls’ ace raider Bharat was unable to find a rhythm and Vikash Kandola offered some hope but failed to capitalize on numerous chances to inflict the ALL OUT on U Mumba. The home team played with 3 men for nearly 5 minutes and held on to go into the break with a 19-10 lead.

U Mumba extended their lead early into the second half as Zafardanesh’s multi-point raid reduced the Bulls to 2 men. Sushil came off the bench to the Bulls’ rescue and scored 6 quickfire points and Aman claimed a SUPER TACKLE, but it still wasn’t enough to stop U Mumba from grabbing a second ALL OUT. With 12 minutes left, the hosts sat pretty at 28-18.

U Mumba brought on a couple of players from the bench for the remainder of the match as they dominated the proceedings. Bittu, who replaced Rinku in the U Mumba line-up, trapped Bharat in a fine tackle to claim a High 5. Bulls’ veteran defender Surjeet Singh produced a moment of magic towards the end of the game as he outwitted 3 defenders to execute the first SUPER RAID of the match. Incidentally, this was also the first SUPER RAID of Surjeet’s PKL career.

Sachin Narwal followed it up with another sublime SUPER RAID and U Mumba had just 2 men left on the mat. The Bulls went on to bag an ALL OUT in the final raid of the match, but it wasn’t enough to erase their deficit as U Mumba clinched their 5th win on the trot.

Dabang Delhi KC stop Patna Pirates second half comeback to win

Despite a remarkable second half comeback, the Patna Pirates fell short of one point loss (37-38) to Dabang Delhi KC at the Dome by NSCI on Wednesday. Dabang Delhi’s Ashu Malik (10 points) and Patna Pirates’ raiders Sachin (10 points) and M Sudhakar (9 points) were the standout performers of the evening.

In a blistering first half performance Dabang Delhi KC inflicted two ALL OUTs on the Pirates. The first came within the first 10 minutes, as they took a five point lead, and the second followed merely six minutes later to give them a 10 point advantage.

Dabang Delhi KC’s raiders, Malik, Meetu Sharma and Manjeet logged an incredible 13 points from 20 raids in the first half, leaving the Patna Pirates chasing shadows. Malik in particular was not tackled even once in the first half even registering a SUPER RAID with a minute left in the half. Time and again Sachin had pulled the Pirates out of trouble in the season, but on the day, he was subdued by a confident Dabang Delhi KC defence as they took a 13 points advantage into the break.

The Patna irates defence finally clicked into place in the second half, and inflicted an ALL OUT of their own, to cut the lead down to six points. Sachin came to life soon after, registering a SUPER RAID to take out Ashish, Vikrant and Mohit to pull them closer.

The Patna Pirates surge continued through the half, as Sachin and M Sudhakar’s brilliant raiding kept them within three points till late in the game. In the end though, Dabang Delhi KC held on by running down the clock to take the win.