BC Ramesh: Pawan Kumar Sehrawat is our Usain Bolt

A five-point raid from Kashiling Adake and a massive performance by raider Pawan Kumar Sehrawat handed Bengaluru Bulls a 45-32 win over Jaipur Pink Panthers on Sunday. In the post-match press conference, coach BC Ramesh, raider Kashiling Adake and captain Rohit Kumar took questions for Bengaluru Bulls, whereas Jaipur Pink Panthers were represented by coach Srinivas Reddy and captain Anup Kumar.

Bengaluru Bulls

Q. Great comeback in the match. What changed?

BC Ramesh: We have three outstanding raiders. All we need is for one of them to do well and inflict the damage. That’s what I told Rohit (Kumar) on the bench. That if we get one big raid, we’ll turn the tide of this match. So Kashiling Adake’s five-point raid was what really changed the course of the game. Pre-match, we trained hard. Everyone contributed well. First Kashiling, then Rohit, then Pawan just took the game away from them. Our defence was outstanding as well.

Q. Thoughts on Pawan Kumar Sehrawat?

BC Ramesh: Pawan is our Usain Bolt. We told him to attack right off the bat to build a lead. Post that, we could use the more thoughtful raider that we have - Rohit Kumar, to control the flow of the match.

Q. Kashiling, tell us more about your five-point raid.

Kashiling Adake: In my head, I knew the Corner would attempt to grab a hold on my thigh and Anup Kumar wouldn’t try to tackle me. So, I tried to pick up a bonus from that area. When I got it, they tried to tackle me but by then I had covered enough ground to get my hand across the midline.

Jaipur Pink Panthers

Q. What went wrong for your team?

Srinivas Reddy: We gave up huge raids - one five-point raid and another three-point raid -and that cost us the match. The momentum was in our favour and we were in control of proceedings. But Kashiling Adake’s raid gave them a lot of confidence and then they made full use of their advantage.

Q. Do you think that some of the tackles from the Corners weren’t up to the mark?

Srinivas Reddy: Nothing like that. The Corners won us our last game. The center chain also played well. But those big, multiple point raids that we gave away cost us the match. Whenever we managed to get raid points, they allowed us to get only one of their defenders. But we gave them multiple touch points.