PKL 2019 | Both teams played the same, but Bengal Warriors got a bit lucky, says Fazel Atrachali
U Mumba captain Fazel Atrachali has stated that the performance of both the teams were similar and Bengal won because their luck was better than theirs. U Mumba lost their seventh match of the season out of the 15 matches they have played till now and they are currently at 5th position on the table.
U Mumba had a brilliant start with a three-point super-raid by Arjun Deshwal. Though they failed to build on this much as they got all-out soon after, Sukesh Hegde of Bengal inflicted a three-point super raid and increased the lead after all-out but Arjun Deshwal replied with another super raid and the point difference remained 3 points in favour of Bengal when the first half ended.Â
Even after that, it was a see-saw throughout and it came down to the last raid where Deshwal was against Bengal’s three defenders in a do-or-die situation with U Mumba being only a point behind. He failed in that raid and hence Mumba lost the match.
“It was a tough match that was very close, especially, the last 10 minutes. It all came down to that last raid (where Arjun Deshwal was Super Tackled). Both teams made mistakes, but we made more mistakes. Apart from that both teams played the same, but Bengal Warriors got a bit lucky,” U Mumba skipper Fazel Atrachali said in the post-match press conference.
Where the U Mumba defence disappointed by scoring only six points, four of which came from the skipper. In the raiding unit Arjun Deshwal shone through as he scored 14 raid points and 1 tackle point, with the raid points including two super raids which constantly helped his team in having a fighting chance.
“Every match is different. At the start of the match, we sent all our raiders. Abhishek Singh, Rohit Baliyan, everyone. Tonight, we saw Abhishek was not at his best, so we opted to go mostly with Arjun. Maybe in the next game we will see Rohit Baliyan playing well. It’s not important who plays well or if I play well. Whoever is performing well and taking points is the one who should be in the action the most because what’s most important is that the team wins,” Atrachali concluded.