PKL 2019 | Win against Gujarat Fortunegiants was team effort, says Pardeep Narwal
PKL
Patna Pirates skipper Pardeep Narwal has said that the team won against Gujarat Fortunegiants because of the joint effort despite him being the top scorer of the match. It was the second-last match of the season for both Gujarat and Patna as none of them were able to make it to the play-offs.
Patna grabbed a consolation win after failing to qualify for the playoffs for the second time in a row. The three-time champions struggled to get going as apart from skipper Pardeep Narwal none of their players consistently scored for the team. In the last match, as well, where at one hand Pardeep scored 17 raid points, the highest score apart from him was five points by Mohammed Esmail Maghsoudlou.
“I don’t believe that is the case. The defence came up big in the closing stages of the match and that is the only reason we won today. Lee's touch point kickstarted that spell for us right at the end. So, it was a team effort today,” Pardeep Narwal said when asked if the team cannot perform well without him in the post-match press conference.
Gujarat Fortunegiants' defence worked well in the initial matches but lack of form from one or two players affected the team. Hence, they ended up losing the matches. In the last match as well, the defence was only able to score 10 points. In the raiding department, they struggled to find the right combinations and also were not able to perform at crucial moments. In the match against Patna, GB More was the highest scorer in both the departments with 11 raid points and 4 tackle points. The team also went through a captaincy change as well during the season.
“Not much. The coach has a very meticulous plan and we all know our roles. As long as we communicate and perform at the level the coach expects us to, we know we will do well,” skipper Rohit Gulia said when how challenging is the captaincy.
