Pro Kabaddi League 2017 Season 5: Puneri Paltan coach regrets not winning by a 20-point margin

Puneri Paltan looked devastating in the first 10 minutes of their PKL Season 5 inter zone challenge contest against the Telugu Titans at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata on Thursday evening. Their raiders wreaked havoc on the Titans’ defenders while their defenders grappled on the mat with determination.

The result was that Rahul Chaudhari’s men could not even score a single point in those stunning 10 minutes as the scoreboard showed 18-0 in favour of the Maharashtra franchise. It looked to be a completely one-sided affair with no hope for the Titans.

But that could not discourage the yellow brigade, who looked to be making a wondrous comeback after half-time and reduced the huge deficit to just four points at one stage before finally succumbing to a 37-42 defeat.

That left the Pune men with a tinge of regret. They are trying every way possible to move up in the table before arriving at their home leg on October 13. This win did help them leapfrog the former champions Jaipur Pink Panthers to the fourth spot in Zone A.

But if they could restrict the Titans, stemming their second half comeback, they could have won by a 15-20 point margin and that would have helped them shoot up in the table in their hunt for a medal. The Pune coach BC Ramesh could not help but point it out.

“If we had won by over 20 points, we could have gone up in the table. The way we started, everybody was expecting us to win by over 15-20 point margin. It did not happen in the end. That’s the only regret.”

Despite that, Ramesh was effusive in his praise for his boys especially the way they started. All-rounder Sandeep Narwal displayed both his attacking and defending skills with perfection as he accumulated seven points and the captain Deepak Niwas Hooda ran amok with nine. They were ably supported by Monu and Girish Maruti Ernak, who contributed a total of 12 points.

“Our raiders and defenders worked in tandem and played outstanding in the first 15 minutes or so. Monu supported brilliantly. Telugu Titans’ mistakes made no impact on our scoring,” he said.

Even though Rahul Chaudhari was kept quiet by the Pune defenders in the first half, he ultimately became the architect of the Titans’ turnaround. The star raider made a rich haul of nine points that almost equalized the score before Pune super tackled him to dash the Titans’ hopes.

Ramesh admitted that they had specially made a plan to rein in the rampant Rahul. It was, however, a few rash decisions by their men guarding their box that gave away those points to Chaudhari.

“We had made a plan to rein in Rahul Chaudhari and we were quite successful in executing it for the first half of the match. Our defenders then became unnecessarily aggressive and lost their patience. They should not have conceded those points to Chaudhari.”

And they have learned their lesson from this match. When asked how prepared they are to face the struggling Bengaluru Bulls in their next match in Sonepat, the coach exercised a word of caution, making it clear that they cannot take the Season 2 runners-up lightly.

“Bengaluru Bulls are definitely strugglers this season. But they have loads of experience and that makes them pretty dangerous. These are the teams that one needs to be wary of because they can suddenly get their act together and spring a surprise.”