PKL 2019 | Bengaluru Bulls got an early lead and didn’t allow us to come back, says Srinivas Reddy

Jaipur Pink Panthers were outplayed by the Bengaluru Bulls as they lost 30-41 in their encounter last night in Delhi. They had a shaky start to the game as in the first half, their team only had three successful raids. The inactiveness of the raiding unit and to some extent, defending led to the team being all-out 11 minutes into the game. 

“This is not the case for our team alone. If you see the results of other teams as well, some of them are winning consistently before facing a roadblock and some are coming back after losing on the trot. That is the beauty of this league. Bengaluru Bulls played really well with an aggressive defence initially. We had planned for Pawan Sehrawat and were able to stop him but, unfortunately, their other raider (Rohit Kumar) played well. But more than anything else, their defence played brilliantly today because of which they got an early lead and did not allow us to come back,” coach Srinivas Reddy said on being asked if his team is going through a bad spell in the post-match press conference. 

The whole raiding department was able to score only 13 points as opposed to the opposition’s 21 points. The highest raid points scorer was substitute Ajinkya Pawar which five raid points. He lacked support from other raiders such as skipper Deepak Niwas Hooda who scored only one point whereas Deepak Narwal scored two points and Nilesh Salunke failed to score a single point.

“I believe this is a failing of our raiding unit, including myself. Even I was not able to play well. If the skipper is not leading from the front, then how will the team’s confidence rise? So, I take responsibility for this loss,” skipper Deepak Niwas Hooda admitted.

The defense did better but played in patches. The top scorer in defence was surprisingly Nitin Rawal with six tackle points in eight attempts including a Super Tackle. Whereas, the main defenders Sandeep Dhull, Sunil Siddhagavali and Santhapanaselvam were able to score only two points each. And between these three, they also made 12 unsuccessful tackle attempts. 

“These are the strike players of the team. So, it is important for them to perform. But sometimes players have off days and sometimes they aren’t able to perform. The rest of the players we have given a chance to also delivered but at some points, they came under pressure and conceded multiple points. If the raiders aren’t able to score initially then the defence also comes under pressure in the match,” coach Reddy concluded.