PKL 2019 | How U Mumba stopped the Haryana Steelers juggernaut

10/14/2018

After winning the first home game in Sonipat, Haryana Steelers were hammered terribly by U Mumba 26-53 in the second in the ongoing PKL. They still have four more games to go in the home leg and would want to rectify their mistakes from the last game to succeed in the upcoming matches.

Kuldeep Singh's struggle at left corner

The top raiding combination of Abhishek Singh and Siddharth Desai were careful against the Kuldeep Singh, who came in for the injured Surender Nada. The left corner was incredibly influential in the Steelers' win over the Gujarat Fortunegiants, effecting seven successful tackles.

But both the tall raiders from U Mumba used their height to maximum effect against Kuldeep to succeed in the game. They had some major strategies which were on display from Abhishek’s first Super Raid of the game. He tried to deceive Kuldeep trying to score a touch point on him only to lure the corner defender for an ankle hold but had his eyes on the other corner as well. He escaped that tackle by breaching the trap as he evaded Sunil from the right corner as well and got three points in that raid.

In yet another raid, Desai went in with a Super Tackle opportunity for the Steelers. The raider went deep into the Haryana half towards the left corner with an attacking mindset to push Kuldeep deep on to the end line. Kuldeep’s diving attempt for another ankle hold went in vain as Desai managed to come out of the grab to send him off the mat again. He was successful with the ankle hold only once in the entire course of the game at the stroke of half-time when he stopped Desai this with a strong ankle hold. Kuldeep stayed low and with Desai trying to pick up a bonus, he trapped him and the defender was not able to go back because of a good support that came in soon after that strong hold.

The Iranian effect on U Mumba’s defence

Coach Gholamreza Mahmoud Mazandarani and skipper Fazel Atrachali have together instilled the Iranian mindset in U Mumba’s defence which saw good success in yesterday’s game. Fazel as always was terrific with his tackling skills at the left corner position with strong ankle holds and blocks against the Haryana raiders.

Raiding against the mighty Iranian is not that easy and Fazel proved that very early when Monu was in his second raid. Monu tried to steal a bonus under his nose but he was alert enough for the opposition skipper and pounced on to hold his ankle and didn’t allow him to return to his half. He was brilliant with a diving thigh hold as well against Vikash Kandola in the early moments of the second half. This time he waited for the raider to turn around and return and then decided go with the strong thigh hold. But what was important in Fazel’s success is the help he got from other defenders once they were sure of a tackle by him.

Rohit Baliyan and Surinder Singh were effective in the defence as well for Mumba which is going to be a big advantage for them in this season. They were going for combined tackling attempts only when they were certain of a firm tackle by the player who had initiated that and in that process didn’t concede more than one points in a raid to their opponents. An example of that was when Haryana sent Vikash for the do or die raid with eight minutes remaining in the first half. Abhishek Singh from left in tried for an ankle hold and seeing not a strong hold on the raider by Abhishek, the other defenders decided to stay away from that. Surinder reached there but seeing that he backed off on that occasion and that shows the improvement in learning the game situation by the Mumba defenders.

U Mumba has 34 tackle points and 124 total points so far this season whereas they had scored 202 tackle points from 22 games and ended up with 707 total points in the fifth edition. If they go on gathering points at this rate, they will have 48 more tackle points at the end of the league stage this year and as far as total points are concerned they will get 202 more in 22 league matches.

Monu Goyat perishes under pressure

Monu was a star for Haryana Steelers in the first home game but he failed to repeat the same in the second consecutive evening because of some poor moves in the raids that he put in in the game. He had in mind that it will be a direct battle between him and Fazel and the Iranian went with an aggressive intent against the Haryana skipper throughout the game.

Although Monu got a toe touch on Surinder at right cover to start the game, he wasn’t that effective as it was expected from the star raider. Fazel’s plan against Monu worked well for them with a brilliant ankle hold. When Monu went for his raid, his heart was pumping 190 BPM and the pressure was on full display. He got tackled again by the Iranian in the 16th minute of the first half and this time by a body block. Fazel came with a chain, along with Abhishek, from the blind side when the raider was targeting the right corner and restricted him from returning. The second half was no different and Fazel had a simple plan to keep Monu off the mat and after inflicting the third all out of the game, when Monu went for a raid, Fazel again allowed him to go deep and target the centre and cover and the Iranian came in from the left with another body block and Monu had no clue whatsoever as the defender came from the blind side again. The support, to trap Monu, who committed the mistake more than once by turning his back towards Fazel, came in the form of Surinder as the raider's bid to attack the right corner or the cover defender failed as well. Monu looked tentative during the raids and in one of them during the end of the first half he was even tackled by the left in Abhishek Singh and he was unable to escape with good support by Surinder.