Pro Kabaddi League 2017 Season 5: Manjeet Chhillar reveals reason behind argument with referee at match end

Dabang Delhi registered a surprise victory over Jaipur Pink Panthers in Saturdays’ crunch Pro Kabaddi encounter. At the end of 40 minutes, the score read 30-26 to the capital side who mounted an amazing comeback, after being 10 points down in the first half. Post the match, Jaipur captain, Manjeet Chhillar couldn’t hide his disappointment.

“We made a lot of mistakes in defence as well as the offence. We have 10 days to work on our weaknesses, All I can say is we were unlucky tonight. We were playing well and took the lead as well but our raiders let down the team. They disappointed us,” he said.

Star raider Selvamani suffered an injury early on in the match. It left the Panthers reeling as they found it tough to bounce back from that setback. Manjeet stated that his departure was one of the main reasons for their loss.

“Bad luck plus we lost Selvamani early on in the game, he is our main raider alongside Jasvir. We lost him within five minutes of the game. I believe if had Selvamani, he would have supported us well,” Manjeet explained.

When asked about Selvamani’s injury, coach, Balwant Singh was extremely cryptic in his response. He refused to give details about the injury and suggested that he may have possibly injured one of his private parts.

“We began losing the match the minute Selvamani suffered an injury. He is one of the youngest and best raiders, the team suffered a lot without him. Once he left, we hurried a lot. The injury is not much, he twisted something a bit. Not the ankle, somewhere else. Either ankle or knee or somewhere else,” he said. The coach did reveal that Selvamani will be back for the next match.

The match ended amidst some heating discussions between Manjeet and the referee and he revealed the reason behind his anger towards the officials.

“They ended the match without giving a decision, plus it was my third raid. Every point is important in Kabaddi. We could have won a point there,” he stated.

The captain though shrugged off suggestions that his side found it difficult to handle Meraj on the mat, who was Delhi’s best player of the night. But Manjeet did accept that inexperience played a part in their downfall.

“Many of our players are playing for the first time. So, there was a little pressure on them. It’s not as if Meraj troubled us a lot, we tackled him as well. I made a few mistakes as well,” Manjeet signed off.