It was a good preparation for the upcoming qualifiers, hints Fazel Atrachali

It was a good preparation for the upcoming qualifiers, hints Fazel Atrachali

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Fazel Atrachali has stated that the match against Jaipur Pink Panthers was a good learning experience and acted as a preparation for the upcoming qualifiers. U Mumba was the first team to reserve a spot for the upcoming playoffs and currently sit at the top spot on the Zone-A points table.

U Mumba managed to tie the match with Jaipur Pink Panthers 35-35 at the Tau Devilal Sports Complex in Panchkula yesterday. With the chances for the Panthers to the qualifiers ending yesterday, they played freely and managed to secure a hard-fought tie. From the U Mumba’s point of view, the captain of the side Fazel Atrachali said that they got a good learning experience before the qualifiers as the kind of mistakes which they made in the match could cost them the title.

“This was a good experience because we have already qualified for the Playoffs. This match was a positive for us because if we make mistakes like this in the Playoffs then we won’t get a second chance. It was a good match and a good learning experience that we should always have our guard up,” Atrachali said.

For U Mumba, Siddharth Desai was on a roll in a match which his side did not look at its best. He managed to pick fourteen points of which 13 were raid points and one was a bonus. In the defence, Rohit Rana and Surinder Singh made valuable contributions. But U Mumba coach Golamreza Mazandarani chose to praise the opposition and said that the Panthers played a courageous game.

“I think it was a very hard match because Jaipur Pink Panthers played courageously like they didn’t have anything to lose. They played freely. Some of their players were new but even they tried really hard. There were some mistakes in our defence tonight.  I think this result was more crucial for U Mumba because it showed us that in the future we may need to change a few things,” Mazandarani said at the post-match press conference.

The Panthers currently have 33 points from 17 games and sit at the last position on the points table in the Zone-A. For the Panthers the road to the qualifiers has long been closed, hence they seemed to have chosen to play a free game against U Mumba. Panthers’ coach Srinivas Reddy was not a satisfied man as he thought that his team could have won the match if only a few things would have been done right.

“We had a lead of seven points till the closing minutes. I think some of the newer players couldn’t take the pressure from that point on and the team fumbled a little because of which we had to settle for a tie. Otherwise, this could easily have been a victory for us,” Srinivas Reddy said.

For Pink Panthers, Dipak Niwas Hooda and Amit Kumar were the star performers as they scored 13 and 6 points respectively. At the conference, Hooda said that he was just trying to do whatever his coach was suggesting him to do. 

"During the time-outs, both, the coach and I, were stressing that we are five players on the mat so we should wait for the opponent to make a mistake instead of trying for an aggressive tackle. Another mistake we made was that we were giving up points early without waiting for the entire raid clock to run down. But we have a young squad and the more they play, the more they will learn," Hooda said.

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