Pro Kabaddi 2019: Gujarat Fortunegiants snap six-game losing streak; U Mumba see off Tamil Thalaivas

Gujarat Fortunegiants snapped a six-match losing streak in Pro Kabaddi with a narrow 29-26 win over Patna Pirates at the Jawaharlal Nehru indoor stadium in Chennai on Friday.

Rohit Gulia’s Super 10 (10 raid points) turned out to be the gamechanger as Pardeep Narwal’s early heroics went in vain.

The match began with Pardeep taking out Ruturaj Koravi in the opening raid of the game before Fortunegiants’ Rohit Gulia responded with a two-point raid.

However, Patna Pirates took control as Pardeep produced his trademark dubki to effect a three-point super raid.

Patna Pirates continued riding on the momentum they gathered to inflict an all-out in the next minute as the scoreline read 10-3.

Fortunegiants found a way back as a result of some resolute defending and silly errors from the opposition.

The margin came down with Patna Pirates having a just four-point lead at half-time.

In the second half, Fortunegiants bounced back by inflicting an all-out to get into the lead.

GB More extended it further when he got Mohammad Maghsoudlou and Neeraj Kumar in a single raid.

Patna Pirates, however, refused to give up as a super raid from Monu and subsequent successful tackles from Hadi Oshtorak meant scores were level at 22-all.

Rohit Gulia’s two-point raid later saw Gujarat Fortunegiants build a three-point lead as they looked to close out the match by winding down the clock.

In the final minute of the match, Patna Pirates’ Mohammad Maghsoudlou raided Parvesh Bhainswal but it proved to be too little too late as Gujarat Fortunegiants won the tie.

The win took Gujarat up to the seventh spot in the table while Patna remained rooted to the foot.

Tamil Thalaivas end home leg without a victory

U Mumba registering a 29-24 win over Tamil Thalaivas in the second game on Friday as the home side ended the Chennai with three losses and a solitary draw.

In the first minute, Mohit Chillar tackled U Mumba’s chief raider Abhishek Singh. Then Rahul Chaudhari took out Surinder Singh in his first raid before pulling off a two-point raid in his next to give Tamil Thalaivas an excellent start.

A successful do-or-die raid by U Mumba’s Athul MS and an unsuccessful one by the opposition’s V Ajith Kumar meant Tamil Thalaivas’ early lead was quickly trimmed. The margin finally got erased when Sandeep Narwal tackled Rahul and Abhishek raided Vineet Sharma.

However, Ajay Thakur brought the home team back into the game when he got a single touchpoint each on his next two successive raids. Mohit Chhillar’s resilience in defence and subsequent raids by V Ajith Kumar and Rahul saw Tamil Thalaivas take a healthy 12-6 lead.

But, U Mumba refused to give up and a Super Tackle by Harendra Kumar followed by triumphant raids by Abhishek Singh made a half-time scoreline of 12-10.

The second half was a stark contrast to the first one as U Mumba got the lead for the first time in the contest when Athul MS took out Rahul Chaudhari and Ran Singh in a single raid. Riding on the confidence, Athul cleaned up Tamil Thalaivas to inflict the first all-out of the match.

The scoreline read 19-15 then and U Mumba extended the margin to seven points thereafter. However, costly errors like Abhishek Singh timing himself out gave Tamil Thalaivas a glimmer of hope to mount a comeback.

But, U Mumba’s hard-tackling defence dashed those aspirations with the scoreline reading 24-28 in U Mumba’s favour in the final minute of the match.

V Ajith Kumar ran straight into Fazel Atrachali and Abhishek Singh killed the time in the final raid of the contest to ensure U Mumba walked out of it with an impressive victory.

The win took U Mumba into the fourth spot in the table while Tamil Thalaivas dropped down to eighth place after a winless home leg.

The action now shifts to the capital with hosts Dabang Delhi taking on defending champions Bengaluru Bulls in the Delhi leg opener before leaders Jaipur Pink Panthers face a resurgent Telugu Titans side.