Coach Manpreet Singh lauds Gujarat Fortunegiants’ youngsters for repaying his faith

A 14-point blitz starting towards the end of the first half helped Gujarat Fortunegiants beat U.P. Yoddha by a scoreline of 38-31 in Qualifier 2 at the Dome@NSCI SVP Stadium in Mumbai and move on to their second straight VIVO Pro Kabaddi final. In the post-match press conference, coach Manpreet Singh expressed his delight at the performance of the youngsters in his team.

“The players executed my strategy to perfection,” said Singh, “We planned to limit Nitesh Kumar’s impact in defence and starve Prashanth Kumar Rai for raid points in offence and it worked perfectly. I’m extremely proud of the youngsters and they have repaid my faith in them.”

Captain Sunil Kumar, who scored his first three tackle points of the Playoffs on the night, was also pleased by the performance of Gujarat Fortunegiants’ defence.

“Against Bengaluru Bulls, we couldn’t execute our game plan. I and Parvesh Bhainswal combined to score only one tackle point and that was a poor return. Today we both played much better overall than we did on Monday,” said Kumar. He also believed the defence and the offence were in tandem on the mat and the team spirit was a crucial element of their win.

With this victory, Gujarat Fortunegiants head to the final in a rematch of Qualifier 1 against Bengaluru Bulls and coach Manpreet Singh played his cards close to his chest pertaining to the strategy in the final.

He did, however, speak about his team’s loss in Season 5’s final and learning from that experience.

Speaking of the showdown against Bengaluru Bulls, Singh said, “There will be a new first-time champion of VIVO Pro Kabaddi, be it us or Bengaluru Bulls, and that is a good thing for the league. In Season 5, we came within touching distance of the trophy and had to be content with that. On Saturday, we plan to lift it.”

The VIVO Pro Kabaddi Season 6 final will see Bengaluru Bulls battle Gujarat Fortunegiants at the Dome@NSCI SVP Stadium on Saturday.