Yoddha’s captain Nitesh says team is determined to win all games of Greater Noida leg
They need just one win out of the remaining four matches to secure playoffs spot in the Pro Kabaddi League season 7 but Nitesh Kumar led UP Yoddha (58 points in 18 games) want to keep the winning momentum going and win all four matches of the home leg to not just only seal the remaining playoffs spot available but also keep them on the winning track before the final tussle for the glory.
Going into the home leg which they will play at Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex, Greater Noida from today, last season’s star defender (100 tackle points in season 6) and team captain Nitesh Kumar says that though the team just need one win to pip Jaipur Pink Panthers (57 points in 21 games) to advance further in the tournament but that in no way will stop the side to play for win in the remaining matches and maintain winning run.
“Going into the home leg we expect a lot of things to go in our favour. We have a chance to seal playoff spot and what’s better than doing it in front of the home fans. We need one win out of four matches to advance further, so this in some way takes out a lot of pressure from us and we can go with a positive mindset. However, let me make it very clear that even though one win will do the job for us but we want to win all the four games in front of our fans and maintain the winning streak.”
Going into the last phase of the league, UP Yoddha will face table-toppers Dabang Delhi and defending champions Bengaluru Bulls along with Telugu Titans and Puneri Paltan and according to the captain the team management has plans to keep Naveen Kumar (Delhi) and Pawan Sehrawat (Bengaluru) silent during the tie which will help them to achieve the goal.
“Delhi and Bengaluru are two sides that heavily depend on their raiders and if we want to win against them then we have to make sure that we keep their main raiders Naveen and Pawan out of action for as much time as possible.”
“We have played them against before and in those games also they were not able to take many points from us, so this is going to be a sort of motivation this time even and we are confident that we will keep them under check this time too,” the captain said.
The team during the course of four month-long tournament suffered because of injuries to senior players like Rishank Devadiga and Monu Goyat but now that when they are fit and back in the side, the captain says that the return of senior pros in the squad will further boost their chances to go a step beyond this time and win the trophy.
“Rishank and Monu are the two most experienced players in our team and their return from injury is a massive boost for us in this last two weeks of the tournament. They have a lot of experience and their presence is going to matter a lot during crunch situations and I am sure that together we will achieve better results this time,” the captain concluded.
