U Mumba and Bengaluru Bulls win on opening day of Star Sports Pro Kabaddi

Ajay Thakur

On the opening day of the second season of Star Sports Pro Kabaddi, last season’s semi-finalists U Mumba and Bengaluru Bulls emerged victorious in contrasting fashion. The hosts beat reigning champions Jaipur Pink Panthers 29-28, while the Bulls got the better of Bengal Warriors 33-25.

The Panthers were given a setback in the first few minutes as Mumba raced to a 7-2 lead in the first few minutes courtesy of a sensational Shabeer Bapu raid that resulted in Mumbai taking 3 points. However, slowly Jaipur chipped away at the lead and at one time were leading the home team 14-15 with seconds left for half-time.

Mumbai’s star defender Jeeva Kumar, who missed most of last season, ensured that the team went into the half-time break in the lead by coming up with a powerful super tackle to get 2 crucial points. Despite U Mumba captain Anup Kumar having an off-day, his team took a 4-point lead as the scoreline read 23-19 at the halfway stage of the second half. In a dramatic turnaround, the Abhishek Bachchan owned team swung the score (24-23) in their favour by getting all of the Mumba players out.

Just when it looked like U Mumba were running out of steam, Vishal Mane and Jeeva Kumar, egged on by the home crowd, combined to restrict Sonu Narwal and levelled the score. Anup Kumar finally got in the act with a brilliant raid and Jasvir Singh was caught out in the resultant raid to ensure the home side’s victory at the packed NSCI Stadium.

Ajay Thakur showed his quality

The second match of the day was a topsy-turvy encounter as the match swung like a pendulum in the first half. Powered by Nilesh Shinde and captain Dinesh Kumar, Bengal Warriors got all the Bengaluru Bulls players out in just 9 minutes to lead 12-2. However, after resumption of play, the Bulls came charging back and within minutes were trailing by just 2 points (12-14) after an Ajay Thakur raid got the Warriors all out.

The Bulls even managed to level the score at 15-15, before Warriors restored their advantage before the break as both teams took a respite with the scoreboard reading 15-16 in Bengal Warriors’ favour.

The Manjeet Chhillar led team, who reached the semis last season, went on a 13-4 run in the second half to take a sizeable 8-point lead. This run was mainly powered by star raider Ajay Thakur’s weaving run in the 28th minute, when he got 4 Warriors players out.

Despite the best efforts of Warriors’ South Korean import Jang Kun Lee, defender Nilesh Shinde and captain Dinesh Kumar, the team from the East could not close the game down and were playing for pride for the final 5 minutes.

In the last minute, they got Bengaluru’s lead down to 7, which would have meant them getting a point despite losing. However, in the final raid of the match, the Warriors raider got caught as the Bulls celebrated a convincing win.

The victors will face off tomorrow at 9 pm while Telugu Titans and Dabang Delhi will face off in the opening match of the night.