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The Bengaluru Bulls' chances of making it to the super playoffs of the Pro Kabaddi League Season 5 were dealt a crushing blow at the Thyagaraj Sports Complex in Delhi as they lost to U Mumba in the first match on Thursday. The game ended 42-30 in favour of the side from Mumbai as the Bulls defence had a horror outing and rival raider Kashiling Adake had a field day, picking up a total of 17 points.
The Bengaluru Bulls were never in the contest and trailed throughout the course of the game. The difference in points was not much initially but two super raids from the in-form Kashi, that fetched him three and four points each, took the game away from the Zone B side.
Their skipper Rohit Kumar, who ended the match with a decent haul of 12 points, spoke to the media in the post-match press conference and lamented his side's poor defensive performance.
When asked what went wrong in the match, he fired back, "I think everyone who saw the match knows what was wrong. Our defenders gave absolutely no support to the attack and made too many errors, which is why we lost."
He added, "The defence was actually terrified of making tackles, I don't know why. It seemed as if instead of tackling, they were looking to gain touch points. Kashi knew that no one in our defence could have caught him and he made the most of it."
The Bulls skipped then explained how he is forced to take most of the responsibility for his side and how the absence of a second leader has hurt the team. "When I am tackled and go out, the entire morale and confidence of the players goes down," he said.
"It's the same story from last season," said Rohit. "We had the same problems in Season 4 and now, we have been unable to fix them."
He added, "At the auction, we bought some good players. We could have done much better but somehow, our team has been unable to play to its potential."
The Bulls now have five matches left in their campaign and victory in all of them may still not be enough to see them through to the super playoffs. It has been an underwhelming season for the team and the captain's words reflect the sense of disappointment in the side.
