PKL 2019 | Best 7 of the Chennai leg ft. Sandeep Narwal, Surjeet Singh, and Siddharth Desai

08/24/2019

Another leg done and we are now getting a sense of where the teams actually stand and how well they matchup with their rivals. Yet again the home team failed to get a win in front of their fans and it means that, for yet another leg, our combined xi is dominated by players playing fewer matches.

Corners

Sandeep Narwal : Was it ever going to be anyone else after what he did to Tamil Thalaivas in the last game of the Chennai leg. He seems adamant to show everyone that he really is an allrounder and after the Chennai leg, it is hard to argue with him. In the two games, against Haryana and Tamil, he scored a combined 10 points - splitting equally on both sides of the midline. With just two unsuccessful tackles, it was hard to not hand him a place in the team.

Fazel Atrachali : Let me be honest. The only reason Fazel comes into this team is that no other left corner was able to stamp his authority in Chennai. While Jaideep and Ran Singh looked very shaky, Sandeep Dhull looked abysmal over the two games he played during the Thalaivas home leg. Fazel, with seven points which included a Super Tackle, was the best in a set of very average performers.

Covers

Surjeet Singh : Just when it looked like Pune were done for the season with Nitin Tomar not performing as he did before injuries ravaged his career, Pune found a saviour. Surjeet, who was acquired for a lot of money in the auction, showed just why he is considered as one of the best defenders in the sport. 13, YES THIRTEEN, tackle points spread over two games is what the Pune skipper was able to come up with against the home side and the Defending Champions. If that does not impress you, his performance against Bengaluru, where he restricted Pawan Sehrawat to just 5 points might change your mind.

Jeeva Kumar : Before the season started, no one would have thought Bengal to be so high up on the table with nine games played. Why would they? They had let Surjeet walk and acquired the “old man” Jeeva Kumar as a replacement. But the 38-year old has turned up for his side whenever it has mattered. Even though he has far too many unsuccessful tackles to his name, as a cover defender you really can’t be bothered by that. In games against Patna and Delhi, Jeeva collected a combined seven points which is enough to earn him a place in our team of the leg.

Raiders

Siddharth Desai : Remember him? He is back! Over the Chennai leg, he accumulated a massive 18 points. I should also mention that he played just one game in Chennai and put in only 18 raids. Haryana were caught in the middle of Desai run that they could do nothing about. Such was his dominance that even though the Steelers scored 22 raid points of their own, they lost by an 11 point margin because no one was able to get close to him. Telugu might be rooted to the bottom of the table but if he can get going, the playoffs are really not out of their reach.

Vikash Kandola : Haryana Steelers might be the most inconsistent team in the PKL. They can beat a tough team on their day, cue their win against U Mumba, and lose to the worst team in the league on the next day - Telugu Titans fans will attest to that. They lack the consistency that is needed to be a threat in this league in six positions on their team. The only place where they do have it is held by Vikash Kandola. In the six games that he has played this season, he almost averages a Super 10 (58) per game. It was the same in Chennai as well with the raider putting up identical scores of nine points in each game. Shame he doesn’t get enough support from the rest of the field because he looks like he can do it in the playoffs.

Ajith Kumar : Surprised? He is a role player in a team that is filled with raiding talent. In Ajay Thakur and Rahul Chaudhri, Tamil have two raiders that other teams would sacrifice an arm for. However, not this season. The duo has looked well off pace, particularly Rahul, but they have still been given the lion’s share of all the raids. The youngster, playing in front of his home crowd, made sure that he did as much as he could to ensure that his team did not suffer an embarrassing defeat. Maybe it is time that E Bhaskaran moved away from his star men and actually let the youngster have a few extra raids because the way it is going right now, Tamil will surely miss the playoffs.