Pro Kabaddi League 2017 Season 5: Rohit Kumar refuses to blame Bulls’ defeat on their Mumbai ordeal

On Wednesday, the Bengaluru Bulls played their first Pro Kabaddi match since the nightmarish ordeal that they had to go through in Mumbai eight days back when their Zone B Match versus UP Yoddha got postponed after incessant rains lashed the city. It took the players 10 hours to reach the venue and return to the hotel after walking through the waterlogged streets without being able to take the mat at all.

The Bulls were certainly not prepared for such a predicament. On Wednesday, when the southern franchise was hammered by the perpetual strugglers Dabang Delhi 38-30 in the Inter Zonal Challenge contest, questions definitely swirled in everyone’s minds if that experience had left a scar on the players’ morale, especially when they were leading 18-12 at the end of the first half.

But captain Rohit Kumar was candid and honest in the post-match media interaction.

“That ordeal did not affect us at all. If we had a match just the day after, it would have definitely been difficult for all the players. But we got more than a week rest and practised with a lot of enthusiasm," he said.

"Our confidence too was high after the break and we were hoping to do well. We lost due to our defence not working at all.”

Rohit accepted that the Bulls did not do anything right to keep their early lead going. The scorecard itself shows. The ever-dependable Rohit himself accumulated 13 points on the night but the defence did not have anything noteworthy.

That did them in the absence of the experienced right corner defender Ravinder Pahal, who was serving his suspension after being shown a red card due to allegedly abusing the referees in the Bulls’ match against the Bengal Warriors on August 27.

Crestfallen as he is, Rohit pointed out that it hit them hard.

“Knowing that Ravinder would not be there, Delhi’s raiders played with relentless abandon. Their captain Meraj played extremely well. Once he gets into the game, he is virtually unstoppable. If we could stop him, we might have had a chance.

Delhi came back solely due to their fabulous defence and we failed in that area totally.”

The Dabang captain Meraj Sheykh was later asked about his dazzling performance on the mat that brought his team a staggering 14 points all through touch.

The Iranian is a man of limited vocabulary but his answer was very much understandable.

“The team strategy worked totally. Whatever the coach asked, we were able to execute with perfection.”

The said coach, Dr. Ramesh Bhendigiri too was ecstatic that his boys did everything as asked with Meraj taking control from the front.

“Meraj is our main strength but he got a good support too,” referring to the 8 points brought home by Meraj’s fellow Iranian Abolfazl Maghsodlou.

“We had made the right plans to rein in Rohit Kumar and our corner players were brilliant. Today was a day when the offence and defence came together and contributed to the win,” he elaborated.