PKL 2019 | My rhythm will return as I play more games, says Rishank Devadiga

UP Yoddha had a rocky start in their match last night but they recovered well and ended up taking a lead of five points by the end of the first half. But after that, they weren’t able to sustain the lead as Tamil Thalaivas quickly inflicted an all-out. UP Yoddha’s raiding unit only managed to score 13 points out of which five were contributed by Rishank Devadiga. This was his best performance so far this season and even though his average raid point this season is 2.33, his not out percentage is 81.25% which has helped his team. 

“Yes, I think I’ll get better. I just returned to full fitness, my rhythm will return as I play more games. I’ll keep trying to play better in games and help the team in any way I can,” Devadiga said in the post-match press conference.   

In the defence, UP Yoddha was much better as compared to their previous matches. Sumit, with the help of Nitesh Kumar, managed to keep Ajay Thakur and Rahul Chaudhari silent. The irony is that the defence which played well in the entire match ended up giving a point in the last raid which resulted in a tie instead of a win.

“Yes, we could have won the game. When there was three minutes left to play, there was a decision that we couldn’t initiate at the time. They had five players and we had to try and attack because then (if they’d catch us), they’d have six defenders and it would have been easier for our raiders to then try for a bonus. That was the plan and then Rahul Chaudhari got a point off me, which upset the plan. That’s why it became a 50-50 game in the end but if our plan had worked out then we would have won the game by two or three points,” the 25-year-old signed off.