PKL 9: Naveen Kumar breaks down after fifth consecutive loss

The Dabang Delhi raider has been the most consistent player in the league.

Dabang Delhi KC is going through a poor phase losing five successive encounters across the Bengaluru and Pune legs of PKL 9. The reigning champions started the season on a great note winning the first five encounters on the trot and were placed on top of the points table till the end of the Pune leg.

Naveen Kumar despite an injury has been performing to his best scoring nine super 10s which is the most by any player in season 9 but the defence has let the side down completely. Krishan Dhull and Ravi Kumar were in the top 10 list for tackle points in the first few matches but slowly started to show inconsistency hurting the team badly. The raiding department in the absence of Vijay Malik is in fine form with Manjeet and Ashu Malik providing able support to Naveen express.

Losing close games

Naveen Kumar during the post-match press conference after the loss to Puneri Paltan got emotional and broke down after putting up a good fight. The raider said, ”There were many super raid points taken away by Puneri Paltan compared to us which cost us the match. Overall the team is performing exceptionally well in the training following the coach's instructions but aren't able to replicate the same during the match days.”

The coach iterated that, “In the five matches of PKL 9 we lost few were very close ones and we could have capitalised on them. I feel the team is not far away from winning the next match.”

For Dabang Delhi KC to get back to winning ways the defence needs to play in the same way as they did at the start of the season. Delhi has qualified for the playoffs successively in the last three seasons and will know how to get back to winning ways.