Mumbai overwhelm Jaipur in Pro Kabaddi opener

Hosts U Mumbai outclassed Jaipur Pink Panthers, owned by Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan 45-31 to kick off their campaign on a rousing note in the Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League at the NSCI Stadium here tonight.

Mumbai: Hosts U Mumbai outclassed Jaipur Pink Panthers, owned by Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan 45-31 to kick off their campaign on a rousing note in the Star Sports Pro Kabaddi League at the NSCI Stadium here on Saturday.

Led from the front by captain and international Anup Kumar, the Mumbai franchise were too strong for their rivals and carved out a runaway victory after leading by a handy margin of 25-12 at half time. Watched by the entire Bachchan family, including superstar Amitabh, besides cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar Jaipur could not match the speed and agility shown by the Mumbai team and went down rather tamely. Anup Kumar led the U Mumbai raids by logging 14 points while his teammate Shabeer Bapu came up with 7 points. For the losers, Maninder Singh (11) and Jasveer Singh (5) led the scorers list. U Mumbai gained four lona points by packing off the entire opposition through raids and defence while Jaipur gained two lona points and fought back well in the second half but by which time their opponents had gained a substantial lead. U Mumbai secured 34 points through dismissing their rival players out of the arena while Jaipur had 26. The winners gained five bonus points as compared to the losers 3 and U Mumbai also secured through supercatch, a new experimental rule introduced in this league to reward defenders.