Pro Kabaddi League 2017 Season 5: Haryana Steelers coach picks between Surender Nada and Fazel Atrachali

Haryana Steelers and Tamil Thalaivas played out a thrilling 25-25 draw in Wednesday's Pro Kabaddi League encounter.

The southern outfit were thrown into the deep end as their out of form captain, Ajay Thakur was substituted within the first ten minutes. He managed to score just a solitary point before the coach decided that the team was better off without him.

Haryana Steelers captain, Surender Nada was in ominous form, scoring 7 tackle points. Nada was a liveware throughout the game and was largely responsible for sending Ajay Thakur back to the bench. Post the game, Haryana coach, Rambir Singh Khokhar explained why Surender is better than Gujarat corner defender, Fazel Atrachali.

"Yes, in the world, Surender Nada is the best corner defender. There is no doubt about this, he is technical and the way he catches his opponents is amazing. Fazel is good too but technically Surender is superior to Fazel," he said.

The Steelers were desperate for a win but were denied by an unfancied Tamil side. Surender shrugged off suggestions that the topsy-turvy fixture list is the reason behind their sub-par form.

"Nothing like that, our defenders and raiders both made mistakes tonight. We were not able to get our combination right - cover to cover. We have some young players in the squad, who were not effective in the super tackles, because of these mistakes we lost the match," he opined.

The Steelers will play UP Yoddha's next and will need all their defenders to be on top form, including star man, Mohit Chhillar who managed to score just a single tackle point against Thalaivas. The coach, though, refused to lay the blame on his corner defender and believes he will come back strongly in the next game.

"Whatever we had planned for tonight against Tamil Thalaivas failed. We are not planning anything right now about our next game. Mohit played the first game very well, he is a top class defender. Today too he played well but he committed some mistakes today. It does not matter who the opponent is, Mohit will play well," he stated.

The coach expected a lot more from this raiders who seemed content on scoring just bonus points. As a result, the Tamil defence was rarely tested like they should have been. Rambir Singh admitted that his star raider, Vikas wasn't up to the mark but believes there is nothing much to worry about.

"Our defence, our corners are very strong. We have raiders but our star raider, Vikas Kandola couldn't perform tonight. He is young so there are some limitations in his game. Once a 19-year old get tackled a couple of times, he gets nervous. Next match he will do better," the coach signed off.