Mumbai: Dabang Delhi K.C. beat the home team U Mumba 40-34 in a tense encounter at the DOME by NSCI here on Monday night to rise to second on the table.
A rampaging Ashu Malik (13 points) was the star of the game on a day when U Mumba’s defence was underwhelming and underperforming.
Dabang Delhi K.C. rode on a blistering first half performance by Ashu Malik, who grabbed 8 raid points in the first period and was tackled only once by the Mumba defence. They inflicted the first All-Out of the game to take a 13-8 lead.
But as they succeeded on the raid, so did U Mumba, with both defences rendered ineffective in the half and restricted to a mere 7 points collectively.
While Delhi Dabang K.C.’s raiding was almost a one man effort, U Mumba spread their 15 raid points among Amirmohammad Zafardanesh, Guman Singh and Jai Bhagwan.
By the end of the half, despite trailing by two points they had reduced the Delhi Dabang K.C. team to two members on the mat.
Despite some solid raiding under pressure by Delhi Dabang K.C., it didn’t take U Mumba too long in the second half to inflict an All-Out of their own and claw back their hold on the game.
There was a one point difference between the two teams as they went into the final quarter of the game.
Ashu Malik capitalised on a series of Do-or-Die raids to reduce the U Mumba numbers and then almost single handedly inflicted a second All-Out to take a 36-31 lead with three minutes to play.
A series of razor thin decisions went in favour of a brilliant Delhi Dabang K.C. defence in the dying moments of the game as they closed out a hugely important victory.
