PKL 2018 | We were fearless in our approach, says Vikash Khandola

11/12/2018

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Haryana Steelers raider Vikash Khandola has asserted that his team played fearless kabaddi during their game against U Mumba last evening and that helped them secure the win. Khandola scored an astonishing 15 raid points in the game and to hand U Mumba their second consecutive home loss yesterday.

Like all other teams in PKL season 6, Mumba is also going through a poor phase in its home leg. They lost their second consecutive battle at home as they went down to Haryana Steelers by 31-35 at the NSCI Indoor Stadium. Riding on a brilliant raiding show by Khandola, Haryana managed to register a win against a strong team like U Mumba which has done well so far in the league apart from the last two match. According to the raider, the fearless approach that the Steelers took in the game mattered a lot in beating U Mumba last evening.

“We were fearless in our approach. We planned to target specific players and it worked for us. All in all, it was our togetherness and our execution that got us the win,” said Khandola during the post-match press conference.

Speaking about the planning of the Steelers, coach Rambir Singh Khokhar said, “Yes. We had prepared meticulously for every raider that they had. Even at half-time, the score was quite close. We worked hard and were confident that we will beat U Mumba. In offence, we were confident that at least one of our raiders would definitely work. Vikash Khandola’s game in the last two minutes was outstanding.”

Haryana has three raiders in the team and skipper Monu Goyat is the primary one but seeing Khandola doing well in the raiding department Monu is relieved a bit and doesn’t have a lot of responsibilities to shoulder when it comes to raiding department.

“When you know how well your partner is playing it definitely takes pressure off you while looking for points,” said Monu.

“When the defence plays well the raiders feel a bit more relaxed on the mat. And if you observe our matches, you’ll see every time we’ve won the defence has excelled.”

U Mumba is playing consecutive matches because of their home leg and their coach Gholamreza Mahmoud Mazandarani seems to be unsatisfied with this. He also questioned the team’s defensive unit for not putting up a good show against the Steelers in yesterday’s game.

“A few errors in defence. Siddharth was not a 100%. And playing back-to-back is always a difficult prospect,” the coach said.

The U Mumba coach also spoke about Fazell Atrachali’s injury during the press conference and mentioned that it was a tactical decision to keep Abhishek Singh on the bench for the game against the Steelers.

“No. It’s just fatigue. A day’s rest and he’ll be back to his very best. We’ll rotate the rest of the team as well,” Gholamreza concluded.