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The Bengal Warriors were looking to end their home leg on a winning note in their inter zone challenge contest against Dabang Delhi at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata on Thursday. After starting their home leg with two brilliant wins and a draw, they lost their next two matches. Winning their final assignment in the City of Joy was definitely crucial for them as they want to begin the Sonepat leg of PKL 5 with a lot of confidence.
For a long time, it seemed that the Warriors were heading that way as they led 23-14 at one stage only to see the victory snatched away from their grasp in the last minute as Delhi’s Anand Patil could not be held off. It finished with a 31-31 tie that was as much delight for the northern franchise as it was disappointment for the hosts.
The coach of the Zone B leaders, Jagdish Kumble made no effort to hide his sadness in the post-match media interaction even though he did say it was at least a better result than the defeats that they suffered in their last two outings.
“We are definitely disappointed not to have won it in the end. We lost the last two matches and it was always our priority to go for a win in this one. But we have to be content with the fact that it was at least a better result than what we got in our last two matches.”
There was a surprise in the Bengal line-up. Their star raider Jang Kun Lee was left out of the starting seven. The conversation naturally veered to that.
The Korean, who has been a regular for the Warriors ever since the inception of the league in 2014, has been overshadowed by Maninder Singh in their last few matches and has looked pretty inconsistent. The coach made it clear that it was the very reason why they wanted to rest him and give a chance to a deserving candidate.
“Vinod Kumar is a very important man for us. We had made a strategy to win. So we had to keep Lee out. He has been inconsistent so we wanted to give him some rest as the season is, anyway, very long. In the meantime, we wanted to give a chance to others.”
It was Delhi’s 21-year-old Anand Patil who stole the show. Coming in place of the injured Delhi captain Meraj Sheykh, he made a rich haul of nine points and most importantly, helped level the scores. Kumble too lauded his spectacular efforts and admitted that he wrested the match away from their grip.
The Delhi coach Dr. Ramesh Bhendigiri, meanwhile, made a noteworthy point when he said that their target was the Bengal captain Surjeet Singh. They wanted to keep him out as much as possible as Singh, according to him, is the ‘brain’ of the Bengal Warriors.
“We were able to score freely when Surjeet was out. Surjeet is the brain of their team so it was necessary to keep him out,” he explained.
