PKL 2019 | There were mistake done at crucial point, says J Udaya Kumar

Tamil Thalaivas chances of reaching the Top 6 are almost over after their loss against Haryana Steelers last night. The match started with Thalaivas making mistakes in defence and giving away easy points though both Rahul Chaudhari and Ajith Kumar were scoring points in their raids. After getting an all-out for the first time they were lagging behind but they made a comeback and had only a 2 point difference by the end of first-half. They then went on to inflict an all-out but failed to hold onto the lead due to continuous mistakes in defence.

“There were some concerns about the team combination right from the start. After losing a string of successive matches, the morale has been down. Along with that, the communication within the team had been affected. Despite that we had prepared well. Unluckily there was a mistake done at the crucial point of the match, and because of that the team lost,” Udaya Kumar said in the post-match press conference.

Though there was a glimmer of hope when Victor Obiero scored two points and executed a super tackle in successive raids but even he faltered and the team received another all-out.

While talking about him, the coach said,“ He is from Kenya, and he has been practicing for a while now. He had been nursing an injury and had been sidelined for quite a few days. So he didn't get his opportunity. When the team loses repeatedly, then any coach would be afraid to experiment. We wanted a win. Till the time he was there he tried, but didn't exactly work out. We really had no other option. The youngsters we have aren't match-winners. I had tried them out in the previous matches, they were quite excited. In such a tough competition, it's not right to experiment the youngsters so soon. But we had no choice, so we tried it out.” 

There were three good performances, Rahul Chaudhari Super Ten, Ajith’s nine points and Mohit’s four tackle points which included a super tackle. Though the point of concern with the first two were that both the raiders got ousted 6 times each which leaves the team at a vulnerable stage. Senior players like Manjeet Chhilar, Ran Singh and Shabber Bappu failed to leave any impact on the game.

“Compared to previous matches, the defence had improved quite a lot. We kept a few of Kandola's raids in check, along with him, Vinay has been performing well too, but we managed to address him too. However, some of our raids weren't successful and the mistake from an experienced player could have been avoided, but unfortunately that happened. That's the thing,” coach signed off.