Pro Kabaddi League Season 5: Bengal Warriors captain Surjeet Singh not happy despite the last-minute win
The defence of the Bengal Warriors which had looked lacklustre for most of the match, came alive in the last three minutes when Ran Singh brought down Manu Goyat to tie the score at 38-38 before Bengal’s star of the show, Maninder Singh’s attacking prowess sealed the deal for the hosts with a thrilling 41-38 win.
The Bengal captain Surjeet Singh was thus not happy to have somehow snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. The skipper’s inability to tackle the Patna raiders could have proved costly and he pointed that out especially after having contributed a whopping six points in defence in their last encounter in Mumbai which was a 36-36 draw.
“I am not happy at all with the way I performed today. We are fortunate that our team ultimately came away the winners today but it could have proved costly.
I will definitely hope to improve my performance in the upcoming matches and keep my mistakes at bay.”
The coach Jagdish Kumble sounded more pragmatic in his media interaction. Even though Bengal looked to be heading for a disastrous start to their home leg, he was pretty optimistic that a chance would definitely come.
“Both teams are even in terms of strength, so there would definitely be some window of opportunity I was sure. So, I was waiting for that.”
Surjeet Singh, meanwhile, also acknowledged that the defence is the weak point for the defending champions, which proved to be a bonus for Maninder Singh, who pounced readily to score a staggering 13 points on the night.
That same thought was echoed by the Patna coach Ram Mehar Singh, who admitted that the team made the same errors that they did when they let a 24-11 lead at half-time slip by to see the final scoreline at 36-36 at Mumbai.
“In the dying minutes, we should be controlling the defence more and that is what we did not do. We made these same errors even in the last showdown which ended in a draw and this time we had to taste defeat.
A few players are new so the lack of experience also was evident. The experienced players needed to show up,” Singh explained.
Bengal Warriors had silenced the initial aggression from the famed Patna Patna raiders for quite some time in the first half when they led 10-7. But Bengal’s shabby defence could not suppress the imperious duo of Pardeep Narwal and Vinod Kumar who wrested the momentum away from the home team.
All-rounder Vinod Kumar came in handy with his stupendous efforts in the do-or-die raids before the skipper Pardeep launched himself to score his fifth Super 10 of the season and was set to bring the defending champions to a win when the game witnessed a last-minute twist that changed the fortunes of either team.