PKL | Hard work of the players paid off, says Ashan Kumar

Puneri Paltan won a close match against Haryana Steelers 35-33 at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Pune on Wednesday thus consolidating its third position on the points Table in the Zone A. On the other hand, Bengaluru Bulls stunned the Telugu Titans in the second half of the game to take the match 34-26 by a point difference of eight.

In the first match, it was the all round performance by the Puneri Paltan which saved the day. Sandeep Narwal and G B More with seven and six points each contributed handsomely for the cause. Though it was a close match the coach Ashan Kumar seemed satisfied by the performance of his team.

“This was the result of the hard work from the players. I told the players that I have complete faith in them. If they played the game at the level they are all capable of, then I was sure that we would win. I just told them that they have to focus and play their natural game. That is what they did and ultimately it resulted in our victory,” Kumar said.

On the other hand, Haryana Steelers’ coach Rambir Singh Khokhar was not a happy man ruing the fact that after leading at the halftime his team managed to let the match slip out of their hands. Apart from Monu Goyat and Vikas Khandola no other players did well for the Haryana Steelers. 

“We had a sizeable lead at halftime and played well for six to seven minutes after that as well. But then I feel that we weren’t able to keep up in either offence or defence. Our defence was outstanding in the first half but did not play so well in the second. The coach can only do so much in this scenario, after a point it is up to the team. The three points we gave away in a single raid in the second-half really turned the game around,” Khokhar said.

Bengaluru Bulls along with U Mumba look one of the more stronger of the teams this PKL season. The Bulls demonstrated that against Telugu Titans on Wednesday. Strong performances from Rohit Kumar and Pawan Kumar won the match for the Bulls. Coach BC Ramesh too commended his team for their performance.

“We’ve been reliant on Pawan Kumar Sehrawat and Rohit Kumar to do the bulk of the scoring. But the defence has played at a high level since Amit Sheoran’s entry into the starting seven. Our left and right Covers, Mahender Singh and Ashish Sangwan, as well as Raju Lal Choudhary played a good game. Choudhary especially has been practising very hard and it has paid dividends today. The defence supported the offence as well as they could have, and we are extremely happy with the result,” Ramesh said.

The Bengaluru Bulls who are at the top of the table in Zone B play their next match against the Bengal Warriors next. Regarding the match captain of the side Rohit Kumar said that they will go in to the match with an attitude to win.

“They are a strong team with three Iranian players, but we had to win. We came in with that attitude and got the win,” Kumar said.