Bengal Warriors’ poor run in Pro Kabaddi 2016 Season 4 continued as they lost yet another match to remain at the bottom of points table. The demolition job, this time, was done by the Puneri Paltan, who won the East-West derby 31-38 to becomes leaders of the point table again. Bengal, despite starting with Jang Kun Lee, could never get a hold of the game and their coach Pratap Shetty said that his team’s poor form was down to injuries.
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Talking to the media after the match, Bengal coach Singh praised the young players of his side with hopes of bettering their form this season but said that Warriors have suffered a lot due to injuries. “Four of my raiders and two of my defence squad are injured, even Nitin, Jang are injured but we had to get them in ground as we had no other choice. These are tough times but we hope to bounce back soon. We have a great outfit with some exceptionally talented players,” he said.
To be fair to Bengal, injuries have affected their game and the loss of four raiders is quite evident on the scoreboard. The fact that an unfit Jang Kun Lee had to be brought forth to play in the match against Pune shows how desperate Bengal are to get some points on the board. However, the young players of the side have gotten a chance to show their skills, which is a good thing, but only to a certain extent as it is not reflecting on the points table.
“The young players did play well, and team had got excited, we will try to shape it better and get in better form. We could have done better in the second half and did managed to make a small comeback but unfortunately things did not go our way,” he said.
Pune’s Captain Manjeet scored five defensive points is six tackle attempts in the first half to stop the Bengal raiders. Jang-Kun Lee finally started a match for Bengal after recovering from his injuries, but looked far from his best. The team from Pune inflicted the first all out of the game on Bengal Warriors as Deepak Hooda scored 4 raid points in the first half to give Pune a lead of 12 points as the score read 22-10 after the first 20 minutes of the game.
The second half saw Bengal having a good show on the court, but could not do much to change their fortunes as Pune won the match 38-31 in the end. Talking about Bengal’s attempt for a comeback in the second half, Puneri Paltan’s captain believed the training received by the players from their world class coach helped them to maintain their lead throughout the match, which eventually resulted in a win for the team.
He said: “We had a good lead, and even the good raiders of Bengal like Nitin and Jung had not performed well I'm the first half and even the second half was not quite tough. Our coach has been an international level players and he has trained us well so we managed to have a lead through out and won.”
Puneri Paltan are shaping up to be excellent in the tournament and they now sit pretty at the top of the table with 25 points although Patna, placed second, have played one game lesser than them. However, things are looking for good for Puneri Paltan as their combination looks settled and there are no injuries.
