PKL 2019 | We played well as a team, says Fazel Atrachali
U Mumba skipper Fazel Atrachali is of the belief that they managed to outsmart Telugu Titans in the first game of PKL because they played as a unit and both their defence and raiding departments worked well together. The opening game of PKL 7 was a low-scorer as it ended with the scoreline of 25-31.
U Mumba is said to be one of the most consistent teams in the PKL, in their opening game they showed exactly why that is. They know how to hold their nerves at crucial moments of the game. Yesterday, in the first 10 minutes of the match, only 10 points were scored. The inaugural encounter went forward in favour of U Mumba as they took a good lead with the help of an all-out after 12 minutes into the game.
The defence and the raiding department worked in synchronization. Both the corners Sandeep Narwal and Fazel Atrachali managed to score four points each, in defence another new star seemed to be emerging in the face of Abhishek Singh as he scored a Super 10 in 16 raids.
“Obviously there was some chatter about who our lead raiders would be. But we have Abhishek Singh and Arjun, who did not play much today, and we also have Dong Geon Lee. It isn’t just about Abhishek. It is about the team. And we played well as a team,” U Mumba skipper told reporters after the match.
“Both teams are quite good. Today, it worked out for us. Fazel, Abhishek and Sandeep played quite well. They also had a couple of players that played well, but today, everything worked out on our end,” U Mumba Coach Sanjeev Kumar said in the post-match press conference.
The biggest talking point of the game, however, remained U Mumba's strategy to keep Telugu Titans star raider Siddharth Desai quiet. Desai only managed to score five points in the whole match till the half-time he made six raids out of which he was caught in four of them.
“We did have certain plans to limit him and we managed to execute them,” said Baliyan.
Telugu Titans managed to gain a bit of momentum in the last few minutes of the game due to which Mumba seemed at the verge of an all-out but time ran out before that could happen.
“It’s the first game of the season and there are bound to be things that we can improve upon. This was a good experience for us. The first match is always difficult,” Atrachali concluded.
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