Mumbai: It was indeed the home stadium, with the crowd pushing the decibels to new levels every time UMumba stepped onto the mat against the Bengal Warriors. Having won the opening game for the league, the UMumba captain started the campaign for the team, stepping into the opposition half, only to return with an empty raid. The Bengal Warriors responded with their own captain, Mahesh Goud, who was taken down in a tough tackle at the end of the first three minutes.


With the game looking to be as close as the previous one of the night, six minutes into the game, scores were tied at 6-6. This continued until halftime, culminating with an awesome tackle by Bengal’s Nilesh Shinde of UMumba’s Captain Anup Kumar, stopping him like a brick wall and bringing the Bengal Warriors within one point of UMumba. Both teams however did not earn a single LONA point at the first half.


UMumba’s Rishak Devediga however tipped the scales in favor of his team with repeatedly strong raids, proving himself to be a star raider despite his wrist injury, scoring a total of 7 points through the night. Captain Anup Kumar also proved himself on the battlefield, exemplified at 26 minutes with a two-point raid, clearing out the Bengal defense and earning two LONA points for his team.


UMumba continued to thrive, steadily accumulating points until a time-out at 35 minutes showed the score at UMumba 33, Bengal Warriors, 21. But the Warriors would not give up easily, and valiant raids from Kolkata’s Nitin Madane lead to some spectacular moments, such as a flying leap at 38 minutes that was only barely caught by UMumba’s defense.


Anup Kumar unfortunately let his lead go to his head, getting himself pulled out at 39 minutes for running out the clock, an infraction of clearly stated league rules. In the end however, the scoreboard was the final, indelible affirmation of UMumba’s supremacy, with UMumba winning with 36 points to 25.