Pro Kabaddi Season 7 Day 1 Review: U Mumba find a new star in Abhishek Singh, Pawan wins the battle of the raiders -

Pro Kabaddi Season 7 started with a bang with 2 nail-biting games at the Gachibowli Stadium in Hyderabad. While U Mumba got the better of Telugu Titans, 31-25, despite a late resurgence from the local side, Bengaluru Bulls started their title defence on the perfect note, beating strong challengers Patna Pirates in a nail-biting finish by 34-32.

Telugu Titans vs U Mumba

First up were U Mumba against Telugu Titans. U Mumba got the better start as they built an early momentum, taking a two point lead over Telugu Titans, who had their star raider Siddharth Desai, out already, courtesy of a fine tackle from U Mumba captain Fazel Atrachali. Teelugu Titans captain too got inspired and pulled things back for Telugu Titans, thanks to his ability on either side of the mid-line. However, Telugu’s happiness was short lived as U Mumba’s raiding duo of Abhishek Singh and Rohit Baloyan inflicted some damage on them with Abhishek’s raid inflicting an all-out on U Mumba.

U Mumba built on the momentum and with good teamwork, went into half-time with a 17-9 point lead.

Telugu Titans tried to crawl their way back into the game as Rajnish tried to gather bonus points and reduce the gap, however, U Mumba’s defence was up for the challenge and restricted Titans to just three men inside four minutes of the second half. While defenders were doing a fine job, Abhishek kept things ticking in the raiding department, earning his first Super 10.

Siddhath Desai spent lesser time on the pitch and though he picked up a couple of points late-on in the game, Telugu had left the gap too wide for them to cover in stipulated time. Telugu just couldn’t click as a team and despite some small individual efforts by Rajnish, substitute Rakesh Gowda, Vishal Bhardwaj, and Milghardan, they fell short.

U Mumba emerged victorious and got off to the start they were looking for.

Top Performers:

U Mumba

Best Raider – Abhishek Singh (10 Raid Points)

Best Defender – Sandeep Narwal (4 Tackle Points)

Telugu Titans –

Best Raider – Rajnish (7 Raid Points)

Best Defender – Rakesh Gowda (2 Tackle Points)

Bengaluru Bulls vs Patna Pirates

This game was a highly anticipated one with two top raiders in Pardeep Narwal and Pawan Kumar Sehrawat going up against each other. The game started on a very even note with both teams going neck-to-neck.

Bengaluru Bulls had taken the early lead, courtesy of their terrific raiding duo of Pawan Kumar Sehrawat and Rohit Sharma, however, debutant Iranian all-rounder Mohammad Esmaeil Maghsoudlou kept the Patna Pirates in the hunt with an all-important super tackle, followed by a raid that cut down the difference by 3 points. And soon, Patna got a footing in the game as Pardeep started to make things happen as well.

Patna Pirates, after being inflicted a super-tackle, bounced back to send the Bengaluru Bulls packing, for the first time in the contest, in the 18^th minute. Patna went into half time 17-13 ahead.

Patna Pirates began the second half where they left the first half, increasing their lead to eight points, only to see a resurgent Bengaluru Bulls fight back and hit them hard with four super tackles to cut down the difference to two points.

Pawan Sehrawat then got into the game and levelled the score with six minutes to play. Bengaluru then hardened their grip and with a 36^th minute all-out for Patna Pirates, took the four points lead, and cruise control of the game. It was 30-26 in 36^th minute and though Patna fought hard to restore their lead, it didn’t work out the way they wanted it to.

Bengaluru Bulls pulled of a famous win and showed just why, they are the Pro Kabaddi Champions!