PKL 2019 | It’s going to take some time to adjust, says Rakesh Kumar
Haryana Steelers coach Rakesh Kumar, who marked his coaching debut with a win against Puneri Paltan, has said that he will take some time in adjusting to the new role in the league. He has also added that in their first game, they allowed all their raiders to have a go in the beginning.
In the sixth match of PKL season 7, we saw a fight between two legends of the game Rakesh Kumar and Anup Kumar. It was their debut as coaches for Haryana Steelers and Puneri Paltan and the Steelers won the game quite convincingly towards the end by a margin of 24-34. It was a tough match as Anup’s side failed to challenge the well-synchronized Rakesh’s Haryana. After the match ended, Rakesh revealed that he was not able to sit when the game was on.
“I couldn’t stay in my seat. The official close to our technical area kept telling me to be in my seat and not go into the playing area (without a timeout), but these are habits that I developed as a player. So, it’s going to take some time to adjust, but I’ll manage,” Rakesh was quoted saying in the post-match press conference.
It was a Naveen Kumar show that stood out from the rest as he scored a total of 14 points through which he helped his team gain an edge against the Paltann, the other raiders supported him well too.
“Our plan was to let all three of our raiders, Selvamani K, Naveen and Vinay have a go and then decide who gets to raid the most. Naveen looked in great touch, so we let him do the bulk of it. We told him to focus on his footwork and work their flanks rather than the inside. We knew they would try some advanced tackles and that’s exactly what happened,” the Haryana coach said.
The defence played together with each of them getting some points for themselves and also managed to inflict two all-outs. Skipper Dharamraj Cheralathan seemed to be the key as he held everything together for the Steelers on the mat. He knew when to pace or slow the game down which helped Steelers outshine the Paltan.
“He’s a leader on the mat and he ensured we stayed in control of proceedings. We’ve a lot of young blood in the team and they are obviously excited and make some advanced tackles. So, an experienced, senior figure like Cheralathan is extremely important to keep the nerves in check on the mat,” Rakesh signed off.
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