U Mumba's emphatic win over the Gujarat Giants on October 2 helped them to climb up to number 4 on the points table with their 6th win of Pro Kabaddi League 12.
The one-sided 25-40 win meant that U Mumba took all four possible points off the Giants in this season, having won the first match by 6-5 in five raids after the 29-29 score in the stipulated time.
Heading into week 5, termed as the revenge week, things had heated up in the build-up to the game after Mohammadreza Shadlou's revenge comments after the Giants' win against the UP Yoddhas.
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Here's how captain Sunil Kumar responded to the pre-match comments from the rivals after a comfortable win.
Sunil Kumar hits back at Shadlou's revenge comments
Ahead of the match against U Mumba, Shadlou had promised the Gujarat fans a good run of form after winning only 2 of the 9 matches in this season.
He notably also heaped praise on U Mumba captain Sunil Kumar and believed they could stage a revenge against the Mumbai-based side.
"Sunil is a good captain and a good player. In the last match, that was the first time I was playing the tie-breaker, but this match is going to be different. I am coming for revenge," said Shadlou.
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However, despite the Iranian's instigation, Sunil responded to his comments calmly and felt that prioritizing team's interests will always work better than focusing on individual goals.
"Gujarat is also a good team and Shadlou is a great player. We won the last match, everyone comes for revenge but as I said earlier, it is the team that is the best — the best players will win you one match or two matches but it is the team that wins you the championship or the season," he emphasized.
On the night, Sunil managed 6 tackle points for U Mumba, while the 25-year-old could only score 2 raid points for Gujarat.
While they linger at the bottom of the table, the Iranian allrounder has been one of their better players with 31 raid points and 13 tackle points this season.
On the other hand, Sunil has 30 tackle points in 11 matches, as Mumba stay comfortable in the race for the knockouts.