Dabangs falter in between to lose to U Mumba

For the second consecutive day, the Eagles took the field in the Mankapur Indoor Stadium. This time it was U Mumba in front of us. Meraj Sheykh, who was not looking in great form was dropped to the bench as Nilesh Shinde led the team. Shubham Palkar, Anand Patil and R. Sriram started the game as raiders.

We had a good start to the game as Sriram got the first raid point as Anup Kumar failed to see the toe touch. But after starting on a good note, the Dabangs lost their way slightly. With errors, needless points were given to the opposition as we suffered an all-out in the first 9 minutes. Meraj was introduced in the 12th minute. Nilesh Shinde had a terrific record in the individual head-to-head against Kashiling Adake. The experienced defender was on top in this match as well with some brilliant tackles. While we were getting points in both raiding and defending, we were leaking points also. At the half-time mark, the scoreboard read 8-14 for us as we were looking to fight our way back.

The second half started on a positive note with two back-to-back points for the Dabangs. Nilesh was again in the thick of action as he scored his second High-five of the season. As ten minutes were left in the game, the score read 15-21 with the Dabangs hoping to close in the gap. Dabangs wasted an opportunity to inflict an all-out when Anup was the lone man left. With a hasty tackle, they let the man get a point. Shabeer Bapu, Kashiling Adake and D. Suresh Kumar contributed for the Mumbai team as the scoreboard read 22-36 at full time.

Meraj Sheykh’s (7 points) coming back to form was one of the biggest positive of this match. Nilesh too, gave his best today. Sunil has been pretty successful this season as he went into double figures in tackle points. We achieved another feat in today’s game as we crossed the 1000 raid points in PKL history. Kudos to the whole team! The team will now have a 7-day break when we face the Gujarat Fortunegiants in their hometown.