U Mumba, the champions of the second season and an expected challenger for this season of the Pro Kabaddi League 2017, registered their first victory of the league as they won against the Haryana Steelers by a single point in a thrilling match at the Gachibowli Stadium in Hyderabad yesterday. Kashiling Adake was declared perfect raider, as he snatched seven critical points for the Mumbai kabaddi team, while Haryana captain Surender Nada was awarded Player of the Match after he came away with five points. U Mumba started losing the plot just after half time, and it seemed that the fate of the match would go down just like their last game against Puneri Paltan that they lost by nine points. However, trailing 19-12, Mumbai came back well and stayed ahead of the Haryana team by a point or two. Towards the end, Haryana’s Wazir Khan provided some drama with two points bringing Haryana to within a point of the Mumbai team, but Anup Kumar kept his cool on the raid to see his team through for the match.
Later last night, Patna Pirates, defending champions, took on the home team and newly inducted Telugu Titans and the match turned out to be a one-sided affair as the Patna team won 35-28. Pardeep Narwal returned with an extraordinary fifteen point for a Player of the Match performance that put the Titans in the ground again, after their loss to the Tamil Thalaivas in the opening game. The Titans did well to go 24-27 against the champion team before Narwal pulled off a super raid to force a six point difference and essentially seal the game for the Patna Devils. Nilesh Salunke got six points and skipper Rahul Chaudhari got seven point for the Titans. However, Chaudhari will have to wait another match to complete his eagerly awaited 500th PKL point.
