Hyderabad, Nov 21 : The Puneri Paltan had a comfortable lead, going into the last five minutes of their game against Bengaluru Bulls in the vivo Pro Kabaddi League Season 9 on Sunday. However, the Bulls fought back and levelled the scores at 33-33 before the final raid of the match.
Puneri Paltan's Aslam Inamdar pulled off a magnificent raid to help his team win the match 35-33 in the end at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium in Hyderebad.
Speaking about his final raid, Inamdar said, "I definitely felt the pressure when I went in for the last raid. Fazel asked me to get a bonus point, but I wanted to get a bonus and a raid point. I had confidence in myself and in the end, I could help the team win."
The raider, who has scored 25 raid points in the last one week, also spoke about Captain Fazel Atrachali's influence on the team, "We played well in the first half, but our defense unit made a few mistakes in the second half. Our team has young players and all of them believe in themselves and Fazel gives confidence to all of us. The team has gained good experience this season and we'll look to play well in the upcoming matches as well."
Meanwhile, the skipper Atrachali said, "This match was very important for us. I would like to congratulate our players for the win. This game was a good experience for us. We played well for 33 minutes and then we took it easy in the last 7 minutes. We thought that we would win easily. So now the team knows that they have to fight for 40 minutes in the upcoming games."
The Captain also added that the game against Jaipur is a big one for the Pune side, "Our target is to qualify for the semifinal directly and therefore every match is important for us. Our next game against Jaipur is a big one for us because they are fighting for the top two spots along with us and Bengaluru. Jaipur is a very good side. They have good raiders and defenders."
/IANS