BC Ramesh: Satisfied with defence’s display against challenging raiders like Naveen

Bengal Warriors extended their unbeaten run to eight games in vivo Pro Kabaddi Season 7 after a 42-33 win over Dabang Delhi K.C. at the Tau Devilal Sports Complex in Panchkula on Monday. The win moved them closer to the league leaders but skipper Maninder Singh succumbing to an injury will be worrying for them. After the game, Bengal Warriors’ coach BC Ramesh and raider Sukesh Hegde attended the post-match press conference, while coach Krishan Kumar Hooda, captain Joginder Narwal and Naveen Kumar answered questions from the Dabang Delhi K.C. camp.

Bengal Warriors

Q. Coach, your thoughts on the game?

BC Ramesh: The game was good. Our raiding strategy worked to a tee and was successful. Our second raider plan also worked well, and the strategy was perfect. We allowed them just a few bonus points and disturbed their raiders. Rinku Narwal and Mayur Shivtarkar also performed well and executed a few good tackles. I’m satisfied with the defence’s display against challenging raiders like Naveen. As far as our raiders are concerned, Maninder Singh, Mohammad Nabibakhsh and Sukesh Hegde were all successful. Towards the end, Maninder got injured due to some bad luck. We introduced Ravindra Ramesh Kumawat after that, but he also picked up an injury. Even Dabang Delhi K.C. played well, their raiders Naveen and Vijay did well and so did their defence, albeit not at their usual level.

Q. What’s the update on Maninder’s injury?

BC Ramesh: I’m not certain at the moment since the match just ended. We withdrew him to not aggravate the injury any further. He was in pain because Maninder isn’t the type of player who will leave the court with minor injuries. He’s played through hamstring and groin injuries in the past, but he was in a lot of pain tonight, which is why he had to leave the mat early.

Q. How much of a confidence boost will this win give the team?

BC Ramesh: Everyone knew that this was a high-voltage match. I never received as many calls from people asking me to arrange tickets for a game like today because of the teams that were involved in it. Everyone is aware that these two teams will be semi-finalists and that’s the reason the sides are being spoken about so much. It was a tough match in my opinion, but I was confident that we could win if we contained Naveen and Chandran Ranjit.

Dabang Delhi K.C.

Q. Coach, thoughts on the match?

Krishan Kumar Hooda: We made a few errors in defence at the start of the match and continued to repeat those mistakes, which is why we made life difficult for ourselves tonight.

Q. Joginder, thoughts on the match?

Joginder Narwal: Look, Bengal Warriors are a great team. We are both great teams and at the top of the table. As far as tonight’s match goes, we made several defensive lapses, which cost us the match.

Q. Naveen, you tied Pardeep Narwal’s record of most Super 10s in a season tonight. Are you proud of this achievement?

Naveen Kumar: Yes, it feels good and is a matter of pride, but I am disappointed that we lost the match. We now have to focus on the upcoming matches and create strategies that ensure we don’t repeat the same mistakes that we committed today.