PKL 2019 | Our defence let us down, says Anup Kumar

Super 10s from Deepak Hooda and Deepak Narwal helped Jaipur Pink Panthers secure a 43-34 victory over Puneri Paltan at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Wednesday. The Pink Panthers ended their overall nine-match winless streak to increase their head-to-head lead over Puneri Paltan to 9-5. Puneri Paltan is now 10 points behind the Jaipur Pink Panthers in the Pro Kabaddi League standings. Puneri Paltan coach Anup Kumar was disappointed with his defence and the senior players who let the team down.

“The defence was a bit of a let-down today. They played well for a brief period at the start of the second half but then the senior players made a few errors. Surjeet (Singh) made an error, Girish (Ernak) made an error and then it unraveled for us.” Anup said in the post-match press conference.

Anup went on to explain that Hadi Tajik’s injury resulted in Nitin Tomar filling in at defence which is why he was not allowed to raid.

Meanwhile, skipper Surjeet Singh was not very optimistic about his team’s hopes of reaching the playoffs. Puneri Paltan are still at the eighth position on the points table but they are now 10 points behind Jaipur Pink Panthers with both the teams having three games to go in the league stage.

“Difficult to say. We have to win our remaining matches and hope results elsewhere go our way,” Surjeet said.