PKL 2019 | We went into raid looking to close the gap, reveals BC Ramesh

Bengal won first time at home in their second encounter on Sunday as they pipped Puneri Paltan by 3 points right at the end. Bengal Warriors came back twice in the game and both were courtesy of Super-Raids. The first super-raid came when Bengal were lagging behind by 8 points with 3 minutes left on the clock, when Sukesh Hegde ousted three players.

The second super raid was executed by Mohammed Nabibakhsh, when there was a minute left and they were 4 points behind, as he ousted three of the players that were left on the mat and inflicted an all-out and Bengal ended up receiving five points.

“Yes, we were nervous at the end and there was less time on the clock as well. They had a better chance of winning going into the final minute. We were initially looking to just reduce the deficit and we asked Maninder to go for the raid, but Mohammad Nabibakhsh stopped him and said he wanted to go in. We went into the raid looking to close the gap, but it turned in our favour,” coach BC Ramesh said in the post match press conference. 

Their raiders were not in the best of form in the starting but the late surge helped them a lot. The highest scorer was skipper Maninder Singh, who scored 10 points and he was well supported by Mohammed Nabibakhsh and Sukesh Hedge, who scored 6 points each. Even Prapanjan contributed as he scored 5 points.

“I am not 100% happy but maybe 30-40%. The defence didn’t play that well either. We will look to improve on both aspects of our game in the upcoming matches,” coach BC Ramesh said.

Their upcoming encounter is against U Mumba, who is at the sixth place on the points table and will be coming off a tie.

“They have very good defenders like Sandeep Narwal, Surinder Singh and Fazel Atrachali. They are some of the best players and we will have to work hard to beat them. Both, raiders and defenders, need to work hard. We have Maninder and Nabibakhsh in attack and they will mix it up and raid between them. The same thing applies to defence. We will devise plans with our defenders to stop them with some different strategies,” coach said about their defence.

“The only thing we will be focused on is a win and that is what we are going for. For the rest, we will just have to see how things go,” Skipper said while talking about their approach against U Mumba.