Pro Kabaddi League 2018 Season 6, Match 16: Puneri Paltans' defense shines as Akshay and Girish score High-5s
Haryana Steelers' poor form, in the absence of Surender Nada, continues as they lose their match against Puneri Paltan 27-45 at the Sonepat leg of the Pro Kabaddi League 2018 on Sunday.
The Steelers' defense has been struggling since the departure of Nada, owing to an injury, except for Kuldeep Singh's debut match where he performed well.
Kuldeep Singh, Nada's replacement in the playing 7, along with the other defenders -- Sunil, Sachin Shingade, and Mayur Shivtarkar -- have failed to perform for the past couple of matches. Kuldeep was tentative in his tackles and gave away easy points to Pune's raiders.
Vikas Kandola (11 points) and the Steelers' captain Monu Goyat (8 points) were the only ones from the team to leave an impression on the game.
The Steelers' story is going the U.P. Yoddha way, where both the teams' raiders have been performing, but their defenders are holding them back from winning matches.
Puneri Paltan had a perfect match with both its offense as well as defense contributing almost equally to the final score.
While the attack scored 20 points, primarily due to the efforts from Nitin Tomar (10 points) and Rajesh Mondal (7 points), it was their defense led by their captain, Girish Ernak which came home with an astounding 16 tackle points.
Akshay Jadhav emerged a star in the match with his quick thinking and strategy, as he scored a total of 8 points, including 2 raid and 6 tackle points. Girish Ernak scored yet another High-5 with his 5 tackle points and Sandeep Narwal contributed with 2 tackle points.
The fact that was interesting to see was that Girish gave up his favoured left-corner position to Akshay and took the cover position to strengthen the weak cover defense of the team. The character that reflected through this gesture is what each and every senior player should strive for in order to provide adequate and right opportunities for the youngsters to contribute and make their place in the team.
The Steelers next take on the Jaipur Pink Panthers on Tuesday, the 16th, and would hope that the rest on Monday gives them enough time to come up with a strategy to halt their losing streak.
Puneri Paltan will feature against the Gujarat Fortunegiants in the first match of their home leg at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex on the 18th.