It was necessary for us to win, says U Mumba coach Anil Chaprana

Manpreet Singh discussed how his side lost another close match.

Anil Chaprana's U Mumba beat Manpreet Singh's Haryana Steelers 32-31, helping them climb to sixth on the table with their third win in PKL 9. Captain Surinder Singh led from the front with six tackle points as the U Mumba defence succeeded in restricting the Steelers’ raiders. Guman Singh also contributed in the raiding department with nine raid points. The Steelers players were distraught after losing a second match in the dying minutes after holding control at one point. This is what the coaches and captains said.

U Mumba: Coach Anil Chaprana and captain Surinder Singh

Winning a tight encounter.

The lead changed hands three times in the last quarter of the second half as the pendulum swung both ways in a closely fought contest. Anil Chaprana was relieved that his side prevailed and said, “It was very necessary for us to get the win as we had lost our last match to Puneri Paltan. We were under pressure but the boys executed the plans well. They have a good defence so they held our raiders.”

Surinder’s first High 5

Surinder Singh was a thorn for Haryana’s raiders, as the captain timed his ankle holds perfectly and also used the dash to good effect. He totalled six tackle points against the Steelers. Surinder answered, “I did not do anything different to the previous games. The opponents had many right raiders. In the previous games, there were many left raiders. I am happy we won but we made some mistakes too. We could have won with a bigger lead. The catch on Prapanjan was very risky but Harendra had the confidence to pull it off."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THTlnTUWThs

Haryana Steelers: Coach Manpreet Singh and captain Joginder Narwal

Losing another close match

Haryana’s last two matches have followed a very similar pattern of their opponents running away with the lead, before the Steelers turned to their bench to mount a fight-back and even take the lead with a late all-out, but eventually losing by a point or two in the final few minutes. Coach Manpreet Singh said, “What can I say, a defeat is a defeat. Even after playing well, we lost today and our defence was very good. We should have won today. We did many super tackles but our raiders did not score.”

What should change

The Steelers have kept chopping and changing, turning to the bench on many occasions to look for solutions. Coach Manpreet Singh said, “There is nothing for us to change. The team is doing well. We are just not able to win but we are largely doing well. We have to avoid some silly mistakes here and there.”

Both U Mumba and Haryana Steelers do not have a long time to recover. U Mumba play the Bulls and the Steelers face the Giants in PKL 9.