Kolkata, Feb 12 (IANS): The raiding trio of Maninder Singh (10 points), Nitin Kumar (8 points) and S Vishwas (8 points) made all the difference as the Bengal Warriors got one step closer to the qualification bracket with a massive 46-34 win over the U Mumba at the Netaji Indoor Stadium here on Monday.

In an electric start, the Warriors notched up six unanswered points in the opening five minutes, before U Mumba could even open their account. And even when they did, they were pegged back almost immediately, with the Warriors registering the first ALL OUT of the game to take an 11-2 lead.

U Mumba clawed back some of the lead in the next period of the game, Shivam, but the Warriors' ability to limit Amirmohammad Zafardanesh's raids was key to their success as they locked in their lead for the half. They went into halftime leading by a massive seven points.

The Warriors seemed to be cruising through the early periods of the second half, but a series of successful raids by Shivam, one of which ended as a Super Raid taking out Shubham Shinde and R Guhan saw Mumba inflict an All-Out of their own to claw back into the game, with over 15 minutes to play. The Warriors did not let that setback affect their dominance though, and almost immediately Maninder took charge again, racking in touch points to reduce the Mumba numbers.

With eight minutes of the game left, they inflicted a second All-Out to re-establish a huge lead. Going into the final minutes, Mumba were struggling to try and get a point out of the game, with the Warriors keen to shut them out. To their credit, U Mumba never truly lost hope and reduced the Warriors, numbers in the final minute.

A Super Tackle by Harsh Lad kept the All-Out at bay and in the end it was a dominant first-half performance that took the Warriors to a deserved victory.