Fortunegiants had three accomplished raiders – Rohit Guia, Sachin Tawar and captain Sukesh Hegde
U Mumba has been one of the most consistent sides in Pro Kabaddi’s history, but they haven’t managed to carry their momentum into the current one. As the league moved to Ahmedabad, a well rejuvenated Gujarat Fortunegiants smashed U Mumba 39-21 to begin their home leg on a high note.
Unlike their previous games, Gujarat was not dependent on one player. They clicked as a whole unit, something that the home crowd was expecting from them. Fortunegiants had three accomplished raiders – Rohit Guia, Sachin and captain Sukesh Hegde. With Sukesh looking after the team, young guns Sachin and Rohit spearheaded through U Mumba’s defence.
While Sachin ran riot in the first half, Rohit took charge in the next. Both accumulated 17 points together. Anup, who is leading the Mumbai-based franchise for the fifth time, felt wretched after the defeat as he had no words to define his team’s substandard efforts. “Jo plan kia tha uska 10% bhi deliver nhi kia. (We didn’t deliver what we had planned for),” Anup said in the post-match conference. “Bhagwan toh hoon nhi. Kabhi saari raids mein points aajte hai, aur kabhi luck bilkul nhi chalta.” When asked about him not able to score points, Anup Kumar seemed visibly upset and refused to comment.
Meanwhile, Fortunegiants inflicted four all outs in the entire game whereas U Mumba could not even come close. Only in the sixth minute, Sachin in his third raid gave the home team an eight point lead and with three minutes remaining, Gujarat imposed the second all-out of the game as they went into the half time with the 20-6 lead.
With the raiders in sublime form, the Iranian duo of Fazel Atrachali and Abozar manned Gujarat’s defence stoically. U Mumba’s Shabeer Bapu, Nitin Madane and the ‘captain cool’ himself looked powerless. Shabeer was not able to even open his account while Anup and Nitin managed to score four and three points in over 12 raids.
After the match, Gujarat Fortunegiants coach, Manpreet Singh heaped praises on the two youngsters and said, “I was sure of these two from the beginning of the league. I believe that these two will leave a huge impact in this season. With the proper guidance from Sukesh and Fazel, I’m sure that these two boys will do something big,” Manpreet said during the presser. “Before the start of the season, I had said that Sachin is very talented and everyone will come to know his specialities by the end of the tournament. And we are confident that we will win all our home game matches,” Manpreet added.
“I’m supporting U Mumba from the very first season but only because of Anup Kumar. If he would have been in some other team this season, I would have supported that team,” said a disheartened fan who wanted to meet his idol once.
Being the first of the four new teams to play at home, Gujarat will next be tested against Dabang Delhi and will hope to replicate today’s performance against Meraj Sheykh & co.
