Puneri Paltan leapfrogged Telugu Titans in the Vivo Pro Kabaddi Season 7 standings after a 34-27 win over them at the Thyagaraj Sports Complex in Delhi on Friday. Captain PO Surjeet Singh and coach Anup Kumar were quite impressed with their boys as they ended their Delhi leg’s last game on a high.
The match started with Titans taking on the raiders of the Paltans nut that was the moment when the defenders showed their prowess by ensuring the absence of the opposition star raiders Siddharth and Suraj Desai from the mat. As the match ended in Puneri Paltan’s favor, coach Anup Kumar was all praises for his side in the press conference after the match.
On being asked about his team’s performance Anup Kumar replied, “Everything seems good after you win a match. Yes, they scored 5-6 good tackle points against us in the first half which did was not good for us. It would have been great if we had prevented that from happening at the start, the game could have been easier for us.”
Captain PO Surjeet Singh’s captaincy was the talking point of the night as he backed his boys after 5 successive tackles from the opposition. He still backed his raiders Manjeet and Nitin Tomar as they gave him good results at the end of the game.
Well, the good news for Puneri Paltan would be the forms of Manjeet and Nitin Tomar coming back as coach Anup Kumar praised their efforts as well as their winning performances of the night.
“Nitin and Manjeet’s good form is necessary for the team’s success. Like the way they both played well together, they will have to continue playing in the same manner in the remaining matches of the tournament. As the tournament is now halfway-through, we are neither not in good nor in a bad position now. As you know we played well in our second last game despite that we lost. It’s just a hard luck that comes in between. We will try our best to stick to the same strategy and move forward in the play-offs”, coach Anup Kumar said.
Keeping Siddharth Desai quiet during the first half seemed to have benefitted the side as Puneri Paltan took a lead of 3 points at the end of the first half and also went on to win by 34:27. Anup Kumar highlighted the fact that how important it is to stop Siddharth from scoring against any team.
“Look, he(Siddharth) is the Bahubali of Kabaddi. So keeping him quiet in the first half played to our advantage. We saw that he scored 5-6 back to back points for his team. There we had a bit of panic situation and our players were good enough to tackle him successfully again in the second half. Credit for that goes to our defenders. Infact, the entire team played well today especially the corners played very well and had good balance.” Anup Kumar further added.
It goes on to see how the Paltans will fair in their next game which they are scheduled to play their next game against Haryana Steelers on September 2. Haryana Steelers are having a good patch as they are winning back to back games following their Delhi Leg’s success too.
