A last-gasp effort from Ashish helped U Mumba come up with a 34-33 win over Puneri Paltan and climb up to fourth in the leaderboard on Friday, at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune.
In the other matches in the night, Patna Pirates won their fifth match on the trot, beating Jaipur Pink Panthers 37-30, and UP Yoddhas came up with a 40-34 win over Haryana Steelers.
Billed as the ‘Maha Derby’ between Maharashtra rivals U Mumba and Puneri Paltan, the Mumbai team made it 1-1 for this season after the Pune-based team won their opening encounter earlier this term.
Guman Singh was the star for U Mumba, with 13 crucial raid points, and Rinku Narwal - the captain in the absence of the injured Surender Singh - got four tackle points. But it was Ashish’s last raid of the night, with both teams level on 33-33 that made the difference.
The youngster entered in a do-or-die raid, but drew an error from a Pune defender to help his team win five points.
Later, Arjun Deshwal’s 13 points for the Pink Panthers was cancelled out by a team-effort from the Patna Pirates. Sachin and Rohit Gulia chipped in with eight and nine raid points respectively, while Mohammadreza Chiyaneh picked up a Hi-5 in defence.
In the first match of the night, Pardeep Narwal and the in-form Surender Gill combined well to get the UP Yoddhas their fifth win of the season with a six-point win over the Haryana Steelers.
Pardeep scored eight, and Gill notched up 11 crucial raid points for the victors. Meanwhile, Manjeet scored 12 for the Steelers, and Jaideep Dahiya had a good game in defence with six tackle points.