The energy at the Thyagaraj stadium was brilliant as the fans turned in humongous numbers for to the second home leg game. Dabang fans witnessed yet another close battle yesterday. We started the match on a rocking note as we bagged some quick points in our kitty. Once again, Meraj (7 points) and Abolfazl (5 points) gave us a flying start. Puneri Paltan looked clueless till the halfway stage as we took the lions with ease by gaining a comfortable lead of 14-8.
Post interval, the scenario changed as the visitors, Puneri Paltan made a strong comeback in the contest. Rohit Baliyan (6 points) guarded the fort well by keeping the Pune defenders at bay. Veteran, Nilesh Shinde (3 points) proved his mettle in the defence by pinning some raiders down. He was well accompanied by Yatharth (2 points), who looked fabulous with his dashes. But things slipped rather quickly as Pune inflicted two all outs in quick succession, though we fought back by inflicting an all-out on them but thereon it was all downhill for us and eventually, we lost the match by 29-34.
Talking about landmarks, Rohit Baliyan completed his 100 PKL Total points, while Nilesh Shinde picked up his 150th PKL career point. From team's point of view, we crossed 100 successful tackles this season and we also achieved 100 tackle points in PKL 5.
Our next opponent is our dear neighbour Haryana Steelers, with whom we have already clashed twice in this season. Though both the times they had the last laugh but today with the backing of our home crowd we will surely look to turn things around. Their skipper, Surender Nada, Wazir Singh and Deepak Kumar Dahiya will be on our target today as we will give our all on the mat.