Bengaluru Bulls broke its winless streak and moved up to fourth spot with a 35-33 win against U Mumba on Friday but not before the latter took the fight to the defending ProKabaddi League champion.
From being 12 points down in the 29th minute and Bengaluru’s star raider Pawan Sehrawat picking up points at will, Mumba almost clawed back, thwarted only by the clock running down.
Both teams though remain in the top-six and en route to the playoffs.
An all out with 16 seconds to go in the first half — Sehrawat claiming a three-pointer — cost Mumba dear and with the score at 11-17, the former winner kept playing chase thereafter.
The six-point margin remained constant before a two-pointer by Banty set the ball rolling for a second Mumba all out in the 26th minute and increasing the gap to 12 points.
From 19-31, however, Mumba began chipping away. Abhishek Singh was the star, coming away with a point in each of his four raids.
Surinder Singh stepped up in the defence to keep Mumba in the hunt. Six minutes later, Bengaluru was all out and the lead down to four points at 28-32. It was further reduced to two points with two minutes to go and remained there despite Mumba’s best attempts.
The final match saw 11th-placed Telugu Titans, led by spirited Siddharth Desai, spoil home side Jaipur Pink Panthers’ party with a 51-31 win. The result ruined Panthers’ chances of entering the top-five.
The scores:
Bengaluru Bulls 35 (Pawan Sehrawat 11, Banty 6, Saurabh Nandal 5) bt U Mumba 33 (Abhishek Singh 10, Athul MS 9, Sandeep Narwal 4).
Telugu Titans 51 (Siddharth Desai 22, Rajnish 11, Farhad Milaghardan 4) bt Jaipur Pink Panthers 31 (Deepak Hooda 12, Nilesh Salunke 5, Deepak Narwal 4) .
