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Surjeet Singh and co. were at their absolute best as they inflicted a massive defeat on an in-form U.P Yoddhas on Sunday in the Pro Kabaddi League. All the three raiders from Bengal Warriors – Maninder Singh, Jang Kun Lee and Vinod Kumar fired on all cylinders as the Warriors registered a comfortable 40-20 win over a below par Yoddhas.
To make matters worse, two of UP’s most important players weren’t playing the match. While Rishank Devadiga suffered a muscle pull in the previous game, Yoddha were dealt with another blow as their captain, Nitin Tomar was forced to end his participation midway against Bengal.
Yoddha’s assistant coach gave an update regarding Nitin’s injury. He said, “We felt the absence of Rishank and Nitin Tomar because they have suffered from muscle pain. They are our two star raiders. I felt the teams were equal. Nitin has a muscle pull and is feeling some pain in his ankles. His calf muscles have been stretched,” he explained.
The coach hopes that his captain will be fit and ready to go in four days’ time. They are slated to play Telugu Titans next. But in Nitin’s absence, the team could never set themselves against the Warriors and were all over the place in terms of structure and formation.
“We have 3-4 days before the next match, he should hopefully be back. We are a good team, there’s no need to stress,” the coach stated.
With two of their star raiders on the bench, Rajesh Narwal was used as the primary raider. However, he couldn’t really build any kind of momentum. Narwal admitted that he didn’t expect such a strong Bengal side to show up.
“Look our team was very weak, but we lost two important players. We never expected to lose by such a huge margin,” he said.
Rishank suffered a muscle pull in his last match. He was in fine form and had already scored five raid points inside the first 10 minutes against Bengaluru, before he too bowed out in disappointment. The coach believes that his absence has impacted the defense as well.
“The defense too works based on the offense. Rishank was ready but only 60% fit, he wasn’t 100%. We have to play 22 matches, so there is bound to be more chances of injury. That’s why we didn’t take a chance. We depended on Rajesh Narwal tonight and he had to defend as well as raid,” he signed off.
