Pro Kabaddi 2017 Season 5: Haryana coach heaps praise on Mohit Chhillar

With their defence in shambles, the Haryana Steelers looked nowhere close to winning against Group A toppers Gujarat Fortunegiants at the end of the first half at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata on Saturday. Chants of ‘Sachin, Sachin’, drowned out anyone shouting for the Steelers as Gujarat’s Sachin terrorised the Men in Blue.

The match witnessed an improbable turnaround in the second half though when Haryana came back from 13-20 to snatch a 42-36 victory.

The Haryana coach Rambir Khokhar was naturally beaming during the media interaction as his boys executed whatever he had advised them during the interval.

Khokhar was particularly pleased with his star defender Mohit Chhillar’s work in the dying minutes of the match. Singling out his performance as what led to the turning point, the Steelers mentor heaped praise on Chhillar.

“Whatever I had advised the boys during half-time, was executed properly. Timely raids were needed and Wazir did that beautifully. Mohit’s defence in the last ten minutes of the match was stupendous and that came to our rescue.

"Even when Mohit was left all alone to tackle, he produced a stunner of a performance. I would like to call that the moment of the match.”

Haryana missed their star raider Vikas Khandola in this match who was instrumental in gifting his team a victory against Gujarat in their last outing. Out with injury, the 19-year-old’s absence was thoroughly felt when the JSW-owned team struggled in the initial stages of the match.

But it was Prashanth Kumar Rai and Wazir Singh who took matters into their own hands in the second half to ensure that Vikas’ absence would not do any harm to the team’s fortunes.

The two combined for a staggering 25 points that wrested the match away from Gujarat.

Khokhar pointed out that the duo wiped away any disappointment that the team had in not being able to field Khandola.

“Wazir and Prashanth played the role of all-rounders. They did not let us feel the absence of Vikas. Prashanth was under tremendous pressure, not having played for a couple of matches. But he played brilliantly.”

Mohit Chhillar, on his part, admitted that the team got a bit puzzled when things were not going their way in the first half.

“We lost a bit of harmony before half-time and were quite puzzled. After the interval, we returned with confidence and got out team orientation working. That helped in the turnaround.”

Mohit and the raiders reduced Gujarat to a hapless and listless-looking team towards the end. None of Manpreet Singh’s exhortations from the sidelines helped the leaders of Group A.

Had they not performed that way, Haryana would have put themselves under huge pressure, something even the coach confessed to.