PKL | We succeeded in reducing our mistakes, reveals Rishank Devadiga
Rishank Devadiga has revealed that they had planned to reduce their mistakes coming into the match and they have succeeded in doing that. The race to the playoffs has really intensified in Zone B as four teams in the group including the UP Yoddhas are vying for the two remaining spots.
After a thrilling 34-32 victory over U Mumba, UP Yoddha have somehow managed to stay alive in the contention for a playoff berth in this Pro Kabaddi League season. They will now have to win their last encounter against the Bengal Warriors and hope that the Patna Pirates go on to lose their final match against the Gujarat
“I haven’t been fully fit for the past few matches, so I found it difficult to play. Today I was completely confident as we had a long time to recover after our previous match. I wanted to lead the team well since U Mumba is a very good side. The plan was to reduce the number of mistakes that we have been making in our previous games and we were successful in doing that,” Devadiga said in the
Against U Mumba, UP Yoddha managed to get their first ever victory at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata. Prashant Kumar Rai and Rishank Devadiga continued their great performances and scored eight and seven points respectively for their team while Sachin Kumar gave a stupendous performance taking six tackle points and one raid point to win his team the match.
“Over the past 3-4 matches, our defence has been making very few mistakes. They have been the driving force for us over these games and the confidence of the raiders has increased because of our defenders. We know that if we are caught out by the opponents, our defence is strong enough to revive us. Not only Sachin Kumar, but our entire defence played as a unit and that worked in our favour,” he added.
Yoddha will play Bengal Warriors who have been one of the more disciplined sides of the tournament so far. If they want to get anywhere close to that elusive playoff spot they will have to win that match at any cost. But even a win will not guarantee them a spot as the Pirates are on 55 points and if they win their match they will go through with sixty points regardless of other results in the Zone B.
“We played according to our strategies. We had been planning for this game since the past couple of days and it paid off. We played with three raiders and we also knew that Rishank Devadiga will play a big role today. He is just recovering from an injury and played well today. Our defence was excellent as well. Our main target was Siddharth Desai. We had to tackle him, and the game was ours for the taking,” said Arjun Singh.