PKL 2019 | Win against Pune will boost our confidence, says E Bhaskaran
Tamil Thalaivas coach E Bhaskaran has stated that victory over Puneri Paltan, who are at the top of the table in Zone A, will give his men a huge confidence boost going ahead in the tournament. Tamil Thalaivas have struggled to get going in the PKL so far, winning just one game in their home leg.
Tamil Thalaivas got back to winning ways after losing five matches in a row when they defeated the Puneri Paltans 36-31 on the latter's home court. It has not been an ideal start for the Thalaivas as they had lost five of their six encounters before the win in Pune. At the
“We defeated a top team from the other zone. This will give us a lot of confidence. When you defeat a top team, it is because you have a good team and you aren’t making many mistakes. I think we played very well today and that enabled us to win today,” E Bhaskaran said at the
Even the captain of the Tamil Thalaivas team Ajay Thakur was happy with his and his team’s performance. It was also a historic day for Thakur personally as he became the only third player in Pro Kabaddi League history to reach the milestone of six hundred raid points.
“We have a good team that has the potential to do well. We just had a change of strategy today wherein we attacked their lead raider more. It paid off today and we feel happy to come out with a win. We have been unlucky in our past few games and I’m very happy we got over the line today. I’m hoping this kickstarts our season and we can continue to win many more games,” Ajay Thakur said.
Coach Bhaskaran was also ecstatic with the return to form of his team’s captain Ajay Thakur and hoped that he would continue his performance and win games for his team.
“Ajay got a Super 10 today and got to 600 raid points. It’s never easy to get 600 raid points and the fact that only three players have reached the landmark is
On the other hand, Puneri Paltan’s coach Ashan Kumar acknowledged that their inability to stop Ajay Thakur made a difference in the match. He also revealed his strategy against Thakur which ultimately did not work.
“Our strategy was to not attack him on the white line and lure him in deep into our half but that didn’t materialise as we had planned, and he ended putting in an outstanding performance,” Kumar explained.
The coach, however, was quick to point out that he was concerned about his defence strategy and voiced his confidence about the games that lay ahead.
“Not really, we could have done better in some moments, but over the course of the match we ironed them out. We were in the game right until the last moment and it just slipped out our hands then. It is quite normal and these things happen in the game” he added.