PKL 2019 | Team’s harmony was spot on, says Nitesh Kumar
UP Yoddha skipper Nitesh Kumar has mentioned that his team was able to win their game against Puneri Paltan as the players got their chemistry right and the team’s harmony was spot on. He hailed Sumit who was the top scorer in defence while scoring his third high five of the season.
UP Yoddha outplayed Puneri Paltan in their encounter on Monday night. They won the game by 35-30 with the help of an all-round performance by the UP players. Both their departments were in-sync with each other and their was less margin of error. As a result of this, UP Yoddha managed to inflict an all-out 11 minutes into the game and gained an early lead. They were able to finish the first half 16-9 in their favour.
“We already have the utmost confidence in our roster. All we needed was some trust in each other’s abilities to get the chemistry right and we are finally doing just that. In the last match, it wasn’t at the level that would've liked but today, the team harmony was spot on,” skipper Nitesh Kumar said in the post-match press conference.
The team was playing the match in the absence of two of their most experienced raiders Rishank Devadiga and Monu Goyat but they didn’t let that phase them. Shrikant Jadhav stepped up and picked up the slack for the raiding unit and finished the match with 15 points. Their defense did equally well if we set aside some unnecessary advance tackle attempts of Ashu Singh (5). The highest scorer in defence was the left corner defender Sumit who scored his third high five in this match and held the defence together.
“Last season, teams planned against me and tried to attack from the left flank against us but with the way Sumit’s been playing, it gives the opposition a headache as to what the ideal strategy would be. His emergence has been crucial and as a captain, it does take the pressure off me knowing I have an excellent Corner backing me up,” Nitesh concluded.