Sweet revenge for Thakur, Prabhjot

Uthra G Chaturvedi

For both Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh, the semifinal against Punjab was a game they were desperate to win. So much so that Thakur, who had been suffering from high fever for the past two days and had still not recovered, insisted on playing the game, even if for a few minutes. “Aaj khelna zaruri tha (it was important to play today). There was much more at stake than just a game, at least for both of us. “Yes, it was a grudge match,” Thakur added.

The two experienced forwards had been ignored by the Punjab association for the competition before being approached by Karnataka, and they grabbed the opportunity. Prabhjot, meanwhile, said they had been praying for a match against Punjab all along. “We did not know the groupings till we came here. But once we did, we kept praying for a Punjab win, hoping to meet them at some stage. Today that happened and we are happy that we proved a point to the people who matter,” he said.