PKL 2019 | Inflicting all-out first helped us accumulate lead, says Sanjeev Kumar
U Mumba coach Sanjeev Kumar, after winning their last home game, said that the all-out they inflicted in the second half of the game helped them in gaining the lead against Gujarat Fortunegiants last night. The Mumba coach also talked about the performance of the defenders and their strategies.
U Mumba has now won three out of their six encounters and are on top of the points table. In their last match at home, U Mumba defeated an in-form Gujarat with a point difference of 12. Mumba started strong in the match as their defence executed their strategies well. The defence scored a total of 12 points as compared to Gujarat’s eight.
“Both the teams’ defence was good. The main point was that whichever team got the All-Out first, that team would win. Whatever lead got accumulated was after the points collected after the first All-Out. If we had been All-Out first, then it would have been difficult for us,” U Mumba coach Sanjeev Kumar said in the post-match press conference.
U Mumba's raiding unit still seems to be out of touch as the highest raid points by an individual was five by Abhishek Singh. The highest scorer in defence and in the whole match was Surinder Singh with nine points, five of which came in defence and four raid points was the courtesy of a Super Raid that he pulled through to save his team from getting all-out. It was because of that, the team from Mumbai dodged an all-out and were able to get an unattainable lead.
“If our defence had leaked points then we didn’t have much hope that our raiders would have got the points. So that’s what I told Sandeep Narwal and Fazel Atrachali, whether it’s a bonus or a successful raid, if they get a point, then consider us lost. We couldn’t afford to give a point,” coach Sanjeev concluded.