01 August 2015 Young Bhupender Singh coming in as a substitute for U Mumba turned out to be their man of the hour as he pulled his team through to a seemingly impossible 27-22 win over in Season 2 of Star Sports Pro at the Pataliputra Sports Complex here today. U Mumba were down 20-21 with less than six minutes to go. But then got the all-important all-out with two victims to send his side up 24-21 with the clock showing four minutes to go. Dabang Delhi led 14-11 at the half-way stage.

With this their seventh win in a row, U Mumba finished at the top with 35 points, a tally which is sure to give them a last four berth. Dabang Delhi earned a point to go up to 16 and maintain their fourth position. Bhupender’s super show has given U Mumba another option in the form of tis potent weapon. But Shabeer’s lack of form is a definite reason for worry for the current leaders

But before this, it was the heroics of the tall Bhupender which gave the cutting edge to U Mumba’s attack. He came in when his side was trailing 6-9. He succeeded in first creating a big impression with a super raid to equalize and then went on to score 7 points from ten raids to boost Mumba’s score when they were searching for options while their three raiders Shabeer Bapu, Rishank Devadiga and Captain Anup were on the bench. The youngster responded admirably to help the front-runners maintain their dream run.

Dabang Delhi were in a good mood after the rout they suffered yesterday at the hands of hosts . They kept the rival defence under constant pressure with Rohit Kumar Choudhary and Kashiling Adake earning points at will. In the first half the duo contributed there points each but the real surprise came from the Delhi Captain Ravinder Singh Pahal who had six successful tackles till then. His tally of nine for the match is itself a record he now shares with Jeeva Kumar of Mumba. Dabang Delhi kept ahead of the league leaders at least by a couple of points but then the turnaround came in spite of today’s hero Bhupender falling to a super tackle.

Looking happy after his team’s come-from-behind win, captain Anup Kumar was in full praise for Bhupender Singh. “We started the match a little slowly and this put some pressure on us going into the second half, especially with Dabang Delhi leading by 3 points. This was why we made a few changes, taking Shabeer off and bringing on the youngster Bhupender worked for us. This shows overall we have a good team and it’s a good feeling when the youngsters perform.”

MATCH 25 – DABANG DELHI VS U MUMBA No. Award Player/Team 1 TVS Best Raider of the Match Bhupender Singh (U Mumba) 2 Bajaj Electrical Inspiring Defender of the Match Ravinder Singh Pahal (Dabang Delhi) 3 Patna Pirates Moment of the Match Anup Kumar (U Mumba) 4 VIP Frenchie Big Impression Player of the Match Bhupender Singh (U Mumba) 5 Flipkart Audience Ki Wish Player of the Match (U Mumba)