PKL5 Match 5 report: U Mumba 29-28 Haryana Steelers

Date: 30th July
Time: 8PM IST (3:30PM BST)
Venue: Gachibowli Indoor Stadium, Hyderabad
Zone: A

Line-ups

U Mumba: Joginder Narwal, Anup Kumar (C), D. Suresh Kumar, Shabeer Bappu, Kuldeep Singh, Kashiling Adake, Surinder Singh.
Subs used: Nitin Madane.

Haryana Steelers: Mohit Chhillar, Surender Nada (C), Wazir Singh, Surjeet Singh, Rakesh Singh, Parmod Narwal, Vikash Khandola.
Subs used: Deepak Kumar, Deepak Dahiya.

Match Report

Since it was Haryana Steeler’s first game and U Mumba had a horrible start in their last game, this match started off very slowly with both teams picking up single points for the first 15 mins, at this point the scores were 8 apiece. Then Haryana’s Wazir Singh picked up a couple of raid points as did Haryana’s Vikash Khandola, and they secured the first all out just before half time. The scores were 11-15 to Haryana Steelers.

But in the second half U Mumba responded, first with a super tackle pinning down Wazir Singh and then Kashiling Adake pulled off a super raid knocking both Mohit Chhillar and Surender Nada out! Mumbai capitalised and Anup Kumar secured the all out and now U Mumba were ahead 22 points to 20 points. Then captain cool led the management of the game to see the match out, in the end they only won by one point but U Mumba were in control of the game, final scores 29-28 to Mumbai.

Star Players

  • The best raiders were Anup Kumar and Kashiling Adake, picking up 6 and 7 raid points respectively, with Kashi picking up 3 points in one crucial raid.
  • In defence Surinder Singh was hungry and picked up 4 tackle points but did fail a few tackles, Joginder Narwal and D Suresh Kumar each picked up 3 tackle points.
  • For Haryana Steelers Wazir Singh and Vikash Khandola both picked up 6 points each, with Vikash particularly impressive with his speed and agility.
  • In defence Surender Nada picked up 5 tackle points, whereas his defensive partner Mohit Chhillar failed to pick up any.

Match Prediction

Prediction: U Mumba 33-28 Haryana Steelers
Actual result: U Mumba 29-28 Haryana Steelers

Really close prediction, the gap was smaller than expected!

In the future…

U Mumba got their act together this time with the defence picking up points as well as raiders Anup Kumar and Kashiling Adake picking up raid points. Shabeer failed to impress with only 1 raid point and the defence started skeptically, but with time they will gel better. Perhaps Nitin Madane will be given a chance next time instead of Shabeer.

Haryana Steelers played very well, with raiders Wazir Singh and Vikash Khandola impressing, in particular Vikash was quick and reactive on the raid. In defence the covers need to get better but Surender Nada was impressive and I’m sure Mohit Chhillar will start gaining defence points soon.

Haryana will look to get their first win soon and I’m sure it is not too far away, if the defence can work in unison then they may challenge for the play offs, Mumbai will be happy to get their first win but still have work to do, in particular in defence!