Panchkula (Haryana), Feb 17 (IANS): Haryana Steelers continued their winning run at home as they dismantled U Mumba to clinch a 46-40 win in a Season 10 match of the Pro Kabaddi League at the Tau Devilal indoor stadium here on Saturday. Haryana Steelers’ Vishal Tate, making his PKL Debut, was the star of the game with 15 raid points while Naveen Kundu completed a High 5.
Haryana Steelers’ starting seven featured plenty of fresh faces and they made the most of the opportunity as Ghanshyam Magar put the home side 6-4 ahead. Haryana Steelers needed only six minutes to bag the 1st All-Out, which was followed by a brilliant Super Raid from U Mumba’s Rohit Yadav. U Mumba fought back and had Haryana Steelers on the cusp of an All-Out as they had just 1 man left on the mat, but Vishal turned around the complexion of the game.
He came up with two incredible Super Raids to bring his side back into the game and U Mumba captain Guman Singh was tackled soon after as Haryana Steelers clinched an All-Out much against the run of play. With 5 minutes left, the home side led 26-13. Haryana Steelers had twice as many points as U Mumba at the break as the scoreline read 30-15.
U Mumba made a solid start to the second half as Jai Bhagwan came off the bench to his team’s rescue. He ran through the Haryana Steelers' defence and even had a multi-point raid to his name as U Mumba clinched an All-Out in the 23rd minute. They stepped it up a notch thereon and needed just 5 more minutes for another All-Out as they clawed their way back into the game.
Jai got the better of Naveen Kundu and Mohit Nandal to inflict the All-Out as they trailed by just 3 points at 35-38. U Mumba scored 17 points, as compared to the Haryana Steelers’ seven, in the 20th-30th minute. While U Mumba did remarkably well to reduce their deficit, they ran out of ideas at the end as Haryana Steelers secured a 6-point victory.