Pro Kabaddi League 2017 Season 5: "Bengal Warriors were lucky," says Patna Pirates coach after draw
The Bengal Warriors have been a thorn in the side of the defending champions Patna Pirates in the ongoing Season 5 of the Pro Kabaddi League. No matter how confidently the green-and-yellow brigade are performing against everybody else and how effortlessly Pardeep Narwal is raiding, the Bengal franchise always makes sure that Patna does not get to win the match.
The Pirates came into their home leg having lost one encounter and tied the other in their only two showdowns with the Warriors this season. Naturally, the hosts were desperate to shrug off that indifferent form and make a statement against their nemesis during their Zone B face-off between the No. 1 and the No. 2 placed teams at the Tana Bhagat Indoor Stadium in Ranchi on Sunday. And for a long time, it seemed that they would finally notch up their first win over the Warriors this season as they led 37-30 at one point.
Eventually, the match ended with the two teams sharing the spoils as Bengal pocketed seven points on the trot to tie the score at 37-37. It was a stunning finish as nobody expected Patna to loosen their grip on the match especially with their first victory over the Warriors in sight.
Naturally, it left the coach Ram Mehar Singh highly dissatisfied. Singh did not shy away from calling the Warriors lucky during his post-match media interaction.
“The Bengal Warriors were lucky. If you are really superior you should have led from the start, but you did not. So, luck was a big factor."
"For 40 minutes or so, we led the match and had it thoroughly in our control. In the end, we still could not finish off as the winners of this match, So, it was definitely their day.”
In those final few minutes, the defence crumbled under relentless pressure from Maninder Singh & Co. with Patna giving away too many free points for which they had to pay dearly.
Singh explained that the defensive unit led by Vishal Mane tried to pounce on the incoming raiders for advance tackling. It proved to be a reckless decision.
“The defenders led by Vishal Mane made advance tackles which did not prove fruitful. The plan was not to give away bonus points but they did concede those.
Singh rued that if only the defence of the team was as good as their raiding department, they could have won every match by 15-20 points.
“If our defence plays like our raiders then we can win every match by a 15-20 point margin,” he sighed, the bitter disappointment highly palpable in his voice.