PKL 2019 | Occasion got the better of our young defenders, says Arjun Singh

UP Yoddha lost to Dabang Delhi by 36-27 last night and this was their fifth loss out of the 10 matches they have played till now. Despite getting the lead of 5-0 at the very start of the match they were not able to take advantage of it. They got all-out just before the first half could end and finished the half lagging behind by four points.

The defence scored a total of nine points in the whole match with Sumit being the top scorer once again with three tackle points. Whereas skipper Nitesh Kumar and Amit scored two points each. The whole defence made around 14 unsuccessful tackles and that is what cost them.

“Our defence could have played better. Our raiding unit played extremely well today, but the occasion got the better of our young defenders,” Assistant coach Arjun Singh said in the post-match press conference.

After a long time, we saw Monu Goyat back in form. In his first raid itself, he managed to score two points and found his rhythm. He finished the match with the first Super 10 for his team by any raider in this season. He lacked support from the rest of the raiders as Shrikant Jhadav only managed to score one point.

“Shrikant Jadhav had a rare off day. If Monu had gotten some support towards the end, we could have won,” the assistant coach said.

“Rishank's leadership is obviously a huge plus, but we also have Monu Goyat, who is a leader and was vocal on the mat today. The defenders made some advanced tackles that they could have avoided. Monu was controlling the game well."