PKL: Zafardanesh stars in U Mumba's third win on trot, beat Bengal Warriors

Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], December 24 (ANI): U Mumba secured their third victory on the trot as they defeated the Bengal Warriors 39-37 in Match 38 of the Pro Kabaddi League season 10 at the SDAT Multi-purpose Indoor Stadium in Chennai on Saturday.
Leading the charge was Iranian Amirmohammad Zafardanesh with 8 points for U Mumba on the night, as per a PKL press release.
Early on, Sombir stopped Maninder in his tracks to get his team off the mark before Guman Singh and Amirmohammad Zafardanesh opened the account for U Mumba. Guman was especially impressive, sending Darpan and Vaibhav Garje off the mat with his raids. In a Do-or-die raid for the Kolkata-based team, Maninder showed his prowess to earn a bonus point and the star raider also got the opponent skipper Surinder Singh off the mat to equal the score in what was turning into a closely-fought contest.
Shrikant Jadhav entered the points tally after the time-out to get Rinku eliminated, but the U Mumba players never gave up on getting the crucial points. With every point won by the Bengal Warriors, the likes of Zafardanesh and Visvanth kept their team in the game. Then, the U Mumba defenders, led by Mahender Singh and his skipper Surinder, pulled off three consecutive 'SUPER TACKLES' to take the lead over the Warriors as the scores read 18-15 heading into halftime.
The Warriors clawed their way back into the game early, getting the U Mumba team 'ALL OUT' with some impressive raids and defensive tactics. U Mumba did well to get themselves back on level terms while Maninder Singh also created his own piece of history.
With a raid to eliminate Surinder, mighty Maninder earned his 1300th raid point in the Pro Kabaddi League, just the second to do so after the legendary Pardeep Narwal, who has 1611 raid points in the prestigious competition to date. But one player who shone out was Harsh Lad, making his first start for the Warriors. He displayed his prowess ending multiple raids of the U Mumba. He got six points in eight attempts from the left corner, keeping his team ahead of their opponents to the very end.
As the match went on, U Mumba used the 'SUPER TACKLE' to their advantage to drag themselves back into the game heading in the final five minutes of the match. They brought on Amirmohammad Zafardanesh at the most important moment of the clash, and immediately, the all-rounder lifted the team over the Warriors. Despite having the lead for most of the second half, once again it was U Mumba who almost the victory with an 'ALL OUT' over the Warriors in the final minutes of the match, although, Maninder and Nitin Kumar took the game very close but were unable to get their team over the line. (ANI)