PKL5 Match 52 preview: U Mumba v Gujarat Fortunegiants

Date: 29th August
Time: 9PM IST (4:30PM BST)
Venue: Dome@NSCI SVP Stadium, Mumbai
Zone: A

Form

The second game of the night is a zone A match which sees home side U Mumba take on Gujarat Fortunegiants. U Mumba are on a losing streak at the moment and they are coming up against the team in form, surely this is over before its begun?

U Mumba: LLLLW
Gujarat Fortunegiants: WDWWW
(last 5 games most recent first, W = won, D = draw, L = lost)

Match Prediction

U Mumba are improving with every home match but the defence is really shaky and letting the defence down a lot. The tackle success rate is really low and this is because of two things, one is that sometimes they are tackling necessarily and the other is the lack of timely support. With Kuldeep the only experienced defender you’d expect him to do well but he is struggling perhaps with the added pressure. Luckily for them Gujarat are probably one of the weaker raiding sides and so they should be able to cope defensively.

Gujarat are playing so well right now that their top spot in zone A looks almost unassailable. The two Iranian corners have been immense and the young covers have done a fantastic job. With the defence performing so well this has taken the pressure off the raiders and allowed them to raid more freely which yields even more points.

The only chance for U Mumba to win this match is to break down the Gujarat defence, Kashi, Anup and co have to be at their very best. I expect Kashi to raid a lot in this game as Anup is predominantly and right raider which means he faces Fazel Atrachali in the left corner for Gujarat who is very strong at ankle grabs. I can’t really see U Mumba beating Gujarat at the moment.

Prediction: U Mumba 25-35 Gujarat Fortunegiants

Players To Watch

• For U Mumba their star raider is Anup Kumar who has 52 raid points in 9 matches, but they also have Kashiling Adake who can amass 10+ raid points in a match, but he only has 32 raid points in 9 matches.
• In defence watch out for Surinder Singh, his youthful exuberance is a joy to watch and he has a great ankle hold and isn’t afraid to utilize the block or the dash. He has 24 tackle points in 9 matches.
• For Gujarat Fortunegiants Sachin has been their best raider scoring really well for a youngster, he has 57 raid points in 10 matches.
• The whole defence is worth watching for Gujarat, but in particular watch Abozar and Fazel in the two corners both can make crunching tackles and they can execute every defensive skill. They have 30 and 26 tackle points respectively both in 10 matches.

Team News and Predicted Line-ups

U Mumba may be unchanged after an improved showing last time out. The only change that could occur is that Shabeer could return from injury to take Shrikant Jadav’s place but Shrikant has been impressive so maybe they could switch out Darshan Kadian.

One of the reasons why Gujarat is on top of zone A is that they have a settled starting 7, the only possible change is Mahendra Rajput coming in instead of Rohit Gulia but this is unlikely.

U Mumba: Surinder Singh, Anup Kumar (C), Shrikant Jadav, Kashiling Adake, Kuldeep Singh, Darshan Kadian, Hadi Oshtorak (✈️).

Gujarat Fortunegiants: Fazel Atrachali (✈️), Sukesh Hegde (C), Abozar Mighani (✈️), Sachin, Rohit Gulia, Sunil Kumar, Parvesh Bhainswal.