The visitor put on an all-round display to collect five invaluable points from the Zone B encounter. Thalaivas head coach Edachery Bhaskaran heaped praise on raider Sukesh Hegde and Manjeet Chhillar. “I would like to congratulate my entire team for a convincing victory. Sukesh and Manjeet played brilliantly. The whole team played as a cohesive unit. We were lacking this kind of completeness in our earlier games. We got a nice break in between, which we used to work, and the players put that learning to good use,” said a satisfied Bhaskaran during the post-match press conference.

Team captain Ajay Thakur was pleased with the comprehensive victory, in which the side ticked all boxes. Thalaivas also created a new record, amassing 19 tackle points, highest in a single match in Pro Kabaddi history. “The defenders performed brilliantly. Manjeet had a great match. It is good to see him coming back into form. Amit Hooda, with his second ‘High 5’ of the season, was brilliant. We have been a little restless defensively in our earlier games but today (Friday), it was perfect. It was a complete team performance and you will see more of this from now,” remarked Ajay. While Ajay has been the Chennai-based franchise’s lead raider, Sukesh and Jasvir Singh are slowly starting to unleash their best.