Gujarat Fortune Giants were defeated by U Mumba 31-25 at the Sawai Mansingh Indoor Stadium in Jaipur on Sunday. After taking 9 raid points in the first half, Rohit Gulia had a quiet second period and that proved to be the big difference in the contest.
Manpreet opted for the same Starting Seven tonight as the Giants entered the mat desperate to beat the in-form U Mumba side and continue their dominance against them in the VIVO Pro Kabaddi League.
In the last encounter in Mumbai, U Mumba’s defence kept our raiders at bay, but it wasn’t the case on Sunday. Our captain Rohit Gulia troubled the opposition defence from the first raid, picking out Sandeep Narwal with a toe touch.
We took a 2-0 lead after Abhishek Singh went into the lobby without a touch point but U Mumba responded back with a tackle point on Rohit Gulia.
After Abhishek Singh got Pankaj, Rohit Gulia came back and took down the big fish Fazel Atrachali to level the score at 5-5. It was neck and neck in the first quarter until U Mumba took three quick points to put the pressure on the Giants.
We were down to one man after Abhishek Singh escaped Ruturaj’s attempted block, and U Mumba enforced our first All-Out in the 11th minute to take a 5-point lead at 11-6.
Rohit Gulia led the fightback and the Giants got four points to reduce the deficit to just one. The highlight of that was Rohit Gulia’s emphatic two-point raid where he showed incredible strength to escape from Harender and Surinder Singh’s challenge in the 15th minute.
Rohit stamped his authority and took down Young Chang before escaping from the challenge of Sandeep Narwal and Rohit Baliyan to inflict U Mumba’s first All-Out in the 17th minute. We took a two-point lead at 16-14 after the All-Out, but U Mumba got two raid points at the stroke of half-time.
Rohit Gulia stole the show in the first half with 9 points as we went into the break with the scores level at 16-16.
The third quarter off the match was evenly contested as both teams followed a cautious approach, taking risks only in the do-or-die raids.
With the scoreline reading 21-21, Sachin Tanwar was awarded a two-point raid after he escaped from the challenge of Young Chang and Sandeep Narwal. But U Mumba challenged the call, claiming there was no touch point on Young Chang. The Challenge was deemed successful and Sachin only got the one raid point.
After Abhishek Singh got Sunil Kumar and Rohit Gulia in the do-or-die raid, U Mumba added two more points in quick succession and took a 4-point lead.
The Giants couldn’t withstand U Mumba’s pressure in the final quarter and succumbed to their second All-out after More GB was tackled by Harendra Singh with a double ankle hold.
More GB had a touch point on Fazel Atrachali, but in the buzzer raid of the match, Abhishek Singh got Amit with a running hand touch.
U Mumba 31-25 Gujarat Fortune Giants
What’s next:
After a five-day break, The Giants will be up in action against the Tamil Thalaivas at the Tau Devilal Sports Complex in Haryana on Saturday.
