The U Mumba side has an excellent core of players led by Fazel Atrachali as their skipper. Fazel is also the crucial left corner defender and dictates the defense with his counterpart on the other side. In the first game, Dharmaraj Cheralathan combined brilliantly with Fazel but the same can be expected of Rajguru Subramaniam, Surender Singh, and Hadi Tajik.
Siddharth Desai was brilliant in carrying out raids in the last game scoring 15 points in total and completing 12 successful raids in total. He also carried out one super raid in the last match. There is no doubt he will be U Mumba’s key raider going forward although Rohit Baliyan, R Sriram, and Abhishek Singh are also capable of putting in leading performances as well.
A good start has been missing from U Mumba’s previous campaigns and they would be very keen to set that right in this season.
The Pink Panthers have a very decent squad this year and can stand toe to toe with the best of teams. Led by Anup Kumar, an experienced raider who reads the game brilliantly and knows when exactly to attack. His guidance to the side is going to be very important, especially against a team like U Mumba that comes hard no matter what.
Mohit Chillar and Sandeep Dhull are expected to guard the corners for the Panthers while Bajirao Hodage, and Young Chang Ko man the covers. The Jaipur Pink Panthers also benefit from having all-rounders like Deepak Hooda, N. Siva Ramakrishna, and Santhapanaselvam to lend a lot of versatility to the side.
The Pink Panthers need to get their strategy right and start strong against U Mumba because we don’t think they will be as effective chasing the match from the outset.
12 previous encounters between U Mumba and the Jaipur Pink Panthers have been very closely contested. U Mumba has won 6 matches, Jaipur Pink Panthers 5, and one match has been tied. Historically, there has been very little to choose between the sides and we expect this match to be decided by the thinnest of margins as well.
U Mumba to win