Haryana Steelers beat U Mumba 30-27 in the ongoing season of the ProKabaddi League (PKL) at the Nehru indoor stadium here on Monday.
Vikash Kandola shone for the second consecutive match for Steelers. He ended with nine points in all.
There were back-to-back unsuccessful do-or-die raids initially. First, Steelers’ Prashanth Kumar Rai was held, then U Mumba’s Arjun Deshwal. Steelers trailed 2-4 then.
Super raid
They were followed by Kandola’s super raid — he put out Rohit Baliyan, Surinder Singh and Harendra Kumar — in the sixth minute as Steelers went up 5-4. With that raid, Kandola went past 50 raid points this PKL season.
Later, U Mumba’s Fazel Atrachali went past 400 PKL tackles.
From 8-8, Steelers got to 14-8 when Arjun stepped on to the lobby, trying to touch the defender in the far left corner in a do-or-die raid.
Naveen faked touching a defender and eventually got away with a touch when Harendra got duped and rushed to tackle him. Steelers got to 15-8.
Steelers led 16-8 at the break.
Chand Singh, Ravi Kumar and Kandola pulled off a super tackle on U Mumba’s M.S. Athul for Steelers to extend the lead to 25-17.
U Mumba inflicted an all out on Steelers, putting out the lone raider K. Selvamani, to get to 23-26.
Jaipur Pink Panthers suffered only its second defeat this season, losing 31-24 to U.P. Yoddha in the second match of the day.
“We fumbled in the defence. Amit Hooda and Sandeep Dhull weren’t at their defensive best,” said Pink Panthers coach Srinivas Reddy in the post-match press conference.
The result: Haryana Steelers 30 (Vikash Kandola 9) bt U Mumba 27 (Abhishek Singh 6); UP Yoddha 31 (Surender Gill 8) bt Jaipur Pink Panthers 24 (Deepak Hooda 9).