Pro Kabaddi League 2017 Season 5: Nilesh Shinde speechless on captain Meraj Sheykh's poor form

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Sheykh has struggled for form this season

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Dabang Delhi’s veteran defender, Nilesh Shinde grabbed all the headlines on Friday and rightly so. His surprise tackle on Sandeep Narwal stunned the entire stadium who were in awe of his quick thinking.

Speaking about that tackle, Nilesh revealed that the decision to attempt the tackle was made in a split second and he is happy that he did so. 

“Sandeep wasn’t aware of what was happening, I came from behind and saw that he wasn’t concentrating at all. I wanted to tackle him from behind and that’s what I did,” he stated. 

“There’s no secret behind this. Only if the raider makes a mistake can a defender make a tackle,” he added.

But the fact remains that once again, Delhi were poor against Puneri Paltan in their third Pro Kabaddi game, who didn’t have to push themselves much. The Maharashtra outfit always had things in control and if needed could have won the game by a bigger margin. 

Post the game, Shinde said that multiple mistakes from Dabang’s players resulted in the loss. He admitted that their right corner area was especially vulnerable on a night when they had to be extremely alert against Pune’s quality raiders. 

“Our raiders got the points and Anand Patil performed really well. But myself, Meraj and Shubham made some small mistakes. So, our defence was a little wobbly.”

“From the right corner, me and Bajirao couldn’t execute our tackles properly. Or else the match results could have been something else,” Nilesh added. 

Delhi captain, Meraj Sheykh once again had a torrid time on the mat. The Iranian was unable to score a single point and looked completely out of sorts when his team needed him the most. But Nilesh had no explanation for Meraj’s poor form.

“There’s no pressure on Meraj. I don’t know why he isn’t performing. I cannot tell you anything about this, he is the captain and has continuously played well for four seasons. But today he couldn’t score a single point and couldn’t tackle as well."

Shinde refused to accept that Pune were a cut above Delhi. He reckons that both teams played equally well on the mat and heaped praise on youngster, Anand Patil, who scored an impressive eight points.

“Puneri Paltan are not a difficult side, our defenders tackled them too. Anand Patil also scored well against their defenders, this despite the fact that Pune have so many senior players like Girsh, Sandeep Narwal, Dharmaraj, Deepak Hooda. Anand Patil is still a newcomer and still scored against them,” he explained.

Pune’s Rajesh Mondal scored a well-deserved seven points and was largely responsible for helping the Paltan's across the line. He had little difficulty in scoring against Delhi’s defenders who failed to keep him in check. But Nilesh wasn’t impressed by Mondal’s performance. 

“Whatever points Rajesh Mondal scored, it wasn’t because of him. We tried and forced our tackles on him and he scored points just like that,” Nilesh opined. 

One of the best defenders from season 1, Ravil Dalal once again found himself out of the squad against Pune.

Rumour had it that he was injured, but Nilesh revealed that Dalal was fit. He reckons the younger players in the team have earned their place, suggesting that Dalal will have to do the same. 

“Ravil Dalal is not injured. This is our strategy, Ram, Anand we have new players in the squad. When we do analysis, there is no data available on them. Anand didn’t score in the previous two matches but he did really well tonight.”

“Ravi Dalal will get his chance. We still have to play 19 matches in the league, so everybody is bound to get a chance,” he said.

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