A composed U Mumba held their nerve to edge out UP Yoddha 37-34 in a thrilling Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) match in Lucknow on Friday.
Rishank Devadiga scored 14 points for UP Yoddha but it wasn’t enough as Shabeer Bapu’s 13 and Anup Kumar’s eight points secured the tight win for U Mumba.
UP Yoddha got off to a flying start as Devadiga came up with a super raid in the second minute to lead 4-0. Anup got U Mumba going with a raid point in the third minute, but it was UP Yoddha who led 6-3 as they looked to assert their dominance over U Mumba.
An all-out was inflicted on U Mumba in the ninth minute as they trailed 4-12. Anup then scored another raid point in the 10th minute.
However, UP Yoddha continued to lead 15-8 with Devadiga having six raid points. Shabeer scored two points in the 20th minute, followed by Anup Kumar, who also had four raid points, as they reduced the margin to 12-15 at the break.
U Mumba began the second half strongly, inflicting an all-out in the first minute to level the game at 16-16. U Mumba then stretched the lead to 19-17 in the 22nd minute as they sent Nitin Tomar to the bench.
Devadiga scored two points to turn the tables, handing a slender 20-19 lead to UP Yoddha. He then scored three points in the 26th minute as UP Yoddha further led 23-22.
Darshan Kadian responded with a two-point raid in the next minute for U Mumba. But UP Yoddha inflicted the second all-out in the 30th minute to lead 29-26. Shabeer scored his 11th point of the match in the 32nd minute as U Mumba trailed 28-31. Kadian then produced another two-point raid in the 34th minute to help U Mumba level the match at 31-31.
With less than five minutes to go, U Mumba inflicted their second all-out to lead 35-31. UP Yoddha cut the deficit to two points after 37 minutes. But U Mumba kept their nerve in the last two minutes of the match to emerge victorious.
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