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Bengaluru Bulls were handed their second consecutive loss at home by defending champions Jaipur Pink Panthers. A resurgent Jaipur team led throughout the match as they leapfrogged the Bulls to third spot.
The Bulls captain Manjeet Chhillar spoke to Sportskeeda exclusively after the defeat where he expressed his dismay at the recent results, but showed confidence in his team’s ability to bounce back and stop the rut to qualify for the semis.
Bengaluru Bulls play Dabang Delhi tonight, who ended their home leg with a stellar performance from Kashiling Adake, who created history by amassing 24 points in his side's 45-45 draw with Telugu Titans. Manjeet, however said that the last time they played, Kashi was not effective, but stopped short of revealing the strategies to counter the young raider.
"We have made some strategies (for Kashi), but you will get to know about them in the match only. We have played against them before as well, Kashi only scored 2-3 points in that match. There is no such thing as if he had played well in the previous match so he’ll also play well in the next match. A player has his/her days, wins and losses are part and parcel of the game," expressed Manjeet.
When asked if Bengaluru’s chances of qualifying for the semis took a hit because of 2 back-to-back losses at home, the Bulls captain said that they will look to hit back straight away by winning all the remaining matches.
“Winning the match against Delhi is very important for us. We have 3 matches left and winning two of them is very essential. We will try to win all the three matches, but winning two will cement our place in the semi-finals. We will think about the final afterwards, first let us qualify for the semi-finals,” he said.
“Even Sachin got out on 0 on many occasions”
The Bulls end their home campaign against Telugu Titans, who lie in second spot in the table and have been playing exceptionally well this season. Manjeet said that the team will look to take inspiration from the fact that the Bulls defeated the Titans 35-21 in Patna to hand the team from Hyderabad their second loss in the tournament.
“They (Telugu Titans) were a strong team before as well, when we played them in Patna, at that time they were too coming from a good run of matches. We beat them comfortably back then and I am confident we will do it again this time.
“A player has no pressure, players play well someday and they don’t on other days. Sachin (Tendulkar) is considered as the God of cricket, yet he got out on zero on many occasions. Even for us, Ajay Thakur was not playing well since last 2-3 matches, yet he gave a good performance (Ajay scored 8 points). We hope Ajay Thakur will build on this performance. He is good raider, coming back from a injury is difficult. If he gets the same number of points vs the Titans as he got against the Panthers, I am sure we will win the game.”
Manjeet Chhillar was named as one of 17 sportspersons to be nominated for the prestigious Arjuna award, but the Indian international revealed that he has had no confirmation from the Sports Ministry so far and said that the celebrations will have to wait till the confirmation.
“Yes, I read about it in the newspaper, but I haven’t received any official confirmation from the Sports Ministry. First, let the confirmation come in the form of a letter, then only we will talk about it,” the all-rounder said. “I was very happy to see my name among the 17 sporting personalities who have been nominated for the Arjuna Award, but this is a long process, lots of verifications are to be done.”
Before signing off, Manjeet had a special message for the amazing support the crowd has given the team in the two days of the Bengaluru leg.
“I would like to thank everyone and say, how they do in Kannada, ‘NAMASKARA’ from my side.”
