PKL 2019 | Defence played little weak in first half, says Dharmaraj Cheralathan

Gujarat Fortunegiants were leading by five points at the end of the first half as the scorecard read 19-14 in their favour. However, Haryana made a strong comeback in the second half of the match and ensured that they win the game in the last raid of the match.

In spite of the win, their skipper Dharmaraj Cheralathan expressed his disappointment with the defenders as they had a poor time on the mat in the first 20 minutes.

“The defence played a little weak in the first half. However, they came back in the second half and were well-supported by the raiders,” Cheralathan expressed after the end of the game.

The match was almost going to end in a tie and any other teams would have loved to see the same result but both Haryana and Gujarat went for a win and the Steelers managed to end up on the winning side at the end. Gujarat had to win the game as they wanted to keep the playoffs hopes alive and not depend too much on the other teams.

That is the reason why Haryana coach Rakesh Kumar said that he was also not happy with the way his players played the game. He said that if Haryana could have avoided the all-out earlier in the game then the win could have been more convincing for the home team. 

“The match really turned around only at the very end. It was a match which was heading for a tie but a tie would not benefit us so we made an attempt at the end at it became a successful tackle. However, we made quite a few errors.

“I am happy that we won but I am not at all happy with the performance mainly because the opposition didn’t have much to lose so they had come to give it their all. The pressure was on us. If we could have avoided the early All Out then the match could have turned out very differently. We had discussed before the match that if we take the opposition along in terms of points it will become very difficult for us. That is what happened and the match was neck and neck for a long time,” the Haryana coach explained.