Haryana Steelers on Tuesday night beat Tamil Thailavas 37-29. The win propelled them to the second spot on the Pro Kabaddi League 8 points table.
The league is entering its fag end, and at least 10 teams out of the 12 are still in contention of a playoff berth. Haryana Steelers victory over Tamil Thalaivas, therefore, came at the right time as that gave them five crucial points.
Rakesh Kumar’s men now have 58 points from 18 fixtures. With four games to go, and other teams fighting it out hard, the Steelers have found themselves in a good position.
Pro Kabaddi League season 8: Top 6
| # | Team | Matches played | Points |
| 1 | Patna Pirates | 16 | 60 |
| 2 | Haryana Steelers | 18 | 58 |
| 3 | Dabang Delhi | 17 | 57 |
| 4 | Bengaluru Bulls | 19 | 55 |
| 5 | Jaipur Pink Panthers | 17 | 51 |
| 6 | U Mumba | 16 | 48 |
HS came in with a strategy, as Kumar revealed in an interaction with the media. He said that he had studied the Thailavas’ earlier matches and constructed the game plan accordingly.
A part of that tactic was to play Ashish. It worked pretty well as the 21-year-old contributed a total of 16 points for the team; 13 raid points and three tackle points. Expectedly, Kumar was all praise for Ashish in his post-match interview.
“We analyse every team before the game and decide pre game which are the raiders who can get points, Ashish therefore got to play. He doesn’t only bring points in raids but he also contributes in defense. He is a quality defender as well. He has a good technique to stop fast raiders.
Ashsish played the game because he can provide balance to the side in defense as well as in the raiding department. He is a tall man, he has good footwork and he has good escaping skills, so we played him to strengthen both our departments.”
he was quoted as saying by Sportskeeda.
Ashish, on his part, gave credit to Vikas Khandola, stating that the captain is a senior player who guides the youngsters in the team quite well.
Dhaakad kaptaan ka #Dhaakad Super 🔟
— ProKabaddi (@ProKabaddi) February 4, 2022
Rate his performance in one emoji 🔥#SuperhitPanga #VIVOProKabaddi #HSvBEN pic.twitter.com/gmkYgXwJ4Q
On being asked how Vikas helps the younger players, Ashish said:
“Bhaisahab gives us the freedom to play the way we want to play. He tells us that if you believe you can get the tackle points, go for it. He also gives us the confidence to get the raid points.”
