Heavy competition for the third playoffs spot was on line today in Zone A between U Mumba and Haryana Steelers. The Steelers has per their name stole the show with an impressive win over Mumba by 41-30.
It’s been a day of defence breach, the Mumba defence has let them down big time today. Adding to that, star raider Kashiling Adake had an off-day today just scoring 3 points in total. The problem mounted even further when even Hadi Oshtorak a top player could just defend twice successfully. Nevertheless, Anup Kumar was the sole highlight for Mumba scoring an impressive 10 points of 17 raids. The captain Anup, even in the dire straits, got a bonus point to try to close the gap with a difference of 7 points at 26-33. Unfortunately, Steelers were so good today.
Steelers Stellar Form in First Half
With brilliant defence, Steelers were always going to be too much to handle for Mumba. They began with bonus point and took off from there. The unassuming raider Shrikant from Mumba, scored a point and tried to change the momentum towards them. The captain Surinder Nada never ever let Mumba to get on with the game as Steelers pushed Mumba to a corner. Even though Anup won a super raid and put them in the lead for first time at 10-8. Vikas Kandola with a great raid brought it back to Steelers kitty at 12-10. Kuldeep from U Mumba brought them back in a see-saw battle with a trail of 2 points at 13-15 for them. Haryana Steelers took Mumba to the cleaners in the final minutes at 23-16 while 1st half ended one sided.
Vikas Kandola – Serious Injury?
Just when everything was going well for the Steelers even after recovering from a super raid from Anup, thunderbolt struck the camp. Vikas was in some serious pain and a stretcher had to carry him out to leave the playing field. Mumba had a serious ankle lock on Vikas while the super raider was trying to get more advantage points to coast along. To note, Vikas was already coming back from an Injury to this season. How this injury could seriously impact Steelers in the forthcoming matches is unsure? A serious injury to Vikas could very well show in the standings in Zone A especially when a playoff spot is on the line. Steelers had a real advantage over Mumba at that time.
Coach Dying Minutes Talk – Helped?
U Mumba coach Bhaskaran was seen giving some final tactics to combat Steelers, but everything was in vain, which was clear from the post match talks of Steelers.
The Steelers had planned this match perfectly after their previous meeting’s losses to Mumba well in advance. Steelers were so dominant in the final leg of 2nd half, they literally cruised through to get 41-30 and a whopping win over Mumba.
Defence – the new Stranglehold!
As much as we could speak highly of the raid points, Surinder Nada tackled so effectively five times out of 8. That proved to be the difference between the two sides in this all important match. Defence is the way to go to win more matches than the raid points. Watch out for Steelers in the play off since it has a really good defence. Is defence the new stranglehold or key to title?
