PP beat Haryana Steelers to 45-27 in the Vivo Pro Kabaddi League season 8 and increased their chances to qualify for the playoffs.
They now have 47 points from 17 games and are currently eighth in the standings. However, they still have five matches to go, unlike the other teams in contention, who have played more games than them, except for U Mumba.
Puneri were in full form against the Steelers as their young guns fired all guns blazing. Aslam Imandar took six raid points and two tackle points while Mohit Goyat scored a Super 10, along with two tackle points, and Sombir finished with seven tackle points.
It is the performance of these youngsters that Puneri Paltan has been able to win nine of their 17 matches. The experienced players like Rahul Choudhary, Nitin Tomar and Vishal Bhardwaj haven’t had a great tournament so far.
Rahul Choudhary, the league’s second most successful raider, also known as the “Showman”, has had a very off season so far, curtailed by injuries.
Nitin Tomar has struggled with injuries as well, and he is playing more as a leader in the side than the main player. Vishal Bhardwaj, on the other hand, is yet to find his form.
Anup Kumar, after winning the game against the Steelers, in an interaction with the media said:
“Our team has settled now, I think. To qualify or not to qualify for the playoffs comes after everything. We could have won against Patna Pirates but that Sachin raid shifted the momentum towards Patna Pirates favour.
Him getting self out changed the course of the game, we could have gotten the lead there but couldn’t. Just one mistake cost us that game.”
“Today we played aggressively in the first half, in the 2nd half we slowed down the game and played on Do or die raid.”
He further added,
On being asked what his defence did well against the Steelers, he stated:
“Against Patna Pirates we lost points in defense when we had 3-5 defenders on the mat, today we didn’t have that situation for most part of the game and hence the defence played well than against the Pirates.”
