Leading by a massive 14 points in the first half against Bengal Warriors, Patna Pirates surrendered their lead in the dying seconds of the match and had to be content with simply a draw in Friday's Pro Kabaddi League encounter.
Immediately after the game, Patna's coach, Ram Mehar Singh demanded his players' presence on the sidelines. He was extremely livid and was seen venting his frustration to each one of Patna's players including the likes of Pardeep Narwal and Vishal Mane.
Speaking to the media after the match, Ram Mehar revealed the reason behind his anger and didn't mince his words.
"It's natural that when it's confirmed that we were about to win the game, we had a three-point lead even in the final minute of the match. It's common sense that if we give Bengal's players a bonus, they will try to get a point again.
"All we had to do was give them a touch point, then we would have had the chance to raid. We gave away 3 points in 30 seconds!" he said.
The coach was extremely livid with the fact that his senior most players were the ones committing errors on the mat. He reckons Patna played well for nearly 90% of the match but then lost their cool.
"When such mature and senior players make such mistakes, one is bound to get angry. The game was in our hands and we gifted them a draw. I was angry at this. My team played extremely well for 35 minutes, but we lost our massive lead in just 5 minutes," he explained.
Experienced campaigner, Vishal Mane was short of words to describe his team's performance. Asked if he felt the team began to lose their concentration in the final minutes of the match, the defender accepted that he and his teammates became extremely nervous.
"Yes, definitely. We were leading by a huge margin but we couldn't continue it. I don't know what happened in the final 5 minutes, I cannot understand this. We became very nervous," he said.
At the end of the first half, Patna Pirates were leading 24-11 and it was assumed the game was done and dusted.
But Bengal's Deepak Narwal kept chipping away with crucial point and before the Pirate's could make sense of what had happened, they found themselves surrendering their humungous lead within 5 minutes. Deepak scored 11 raid points on Friday and punished Patna's complacent behaviour.