Krishan Kumar Hooda: Knew Pawan will be strong off the bench

Dabang Delhi K.C. came back from a first-half deficit of two points to register a 41-37 win against Puneri Paltan on Friday. In the post-match press conference, coach Krishan Kumar Hooda and captain Joginder Narwal showed up on behalf of Dabang Delhi K.C. while Ashan Kumar and captain Girish Maruti Ernak took questions for Puneri Paltan.

Dabang Delhi K.C.

Q. In the first half Tomar got 14 points but in the second he could only manage 6. Was it your strategy to not commit against him?

Joginder Narwal: Not really. We came with a well-defined plan of our own. The coach and the team came in with the idea that we shall assess the game at half-time and, depending on who’s leading at that point, we’ll decide if we have to be the aggressors and force the issue or the ones playing defensively.

Q. What was the strategy behind getting Pawan Kumar Kadian as a substitute?

Krishan Kumar Hooda: To me, all the 12 players in the squad are the playing 12. How we use the bench is up to our strategy coming into the game. Who we start with in the 7 and who is on the bench changes according to the situation in the game. We knew Kadian will be a strong raiding option off the bench. He can get a toe touch, a running hand touch and is very skilled. So we didn’t worry much about that.

Q. Your trio of Chandran Ranjit, Naveen and Pawan Kumar Kadian have been in good touch. Are these three your lead raiders moving forward?

Krishan Kumar Hooda: These three are good but I’ve got even more. Only time will tell.

Q. What are your thoughts on Naveen?

Krishan Kumar Hooda: He is a young player and we are constantly talking to him. We help him understand strategies and give him specific advice. He’s an excellent prospect. We are very satisfied with him and his game. He’ll only get better.

Q. What are your thoughts on the team’s defence that had a brilliant day overall?

Joginder Narwal: The coach has been training us quite well in the past three months. I believe we have the best defence in myself, Ravinder Pahal, Vishal Mane and Viraj Vishnu Landge. Viraj may have had an off day but that proved to be inconsequential. Next game he’ll definitely do better.

Puneri Paltan

Q. Tell us about Nitin Tomar’s performance.

Ashan Kumar: Nitin Tomar got us 20 points and the Corners, Girish Maruti Ernak and Sandeep Narwal also did well. 20 points is a lot by itself, some teams don’t get there even during a full game. It would have been better if we could have controlled our defence a little more.

Q. How do you assess your performance over the past three games?

Ashan Kumar: We have a balanced team. Today we couldn’t do well. It is a part of the game. We still have lots of games to go and we will come back strongly. Nitin Tomar has been able to give us very strong performances and we hope it continues in our future games as well.

Q. Do you need to make any changes?

Girish Maruti Ernak: There is no need for a change. We have a well-balanced team. But yes, we will improve on our mistakes and will try our best to win our future games. Our raiders are doing a wonderful job and getting us points. It is our defence which we have to work on and we will try and coordinate better with each other.

Q. Comment on your defence after today’s game.

Ashan Kumar: In hindsight, we did have some problems coordinating our defence. We have plenty of raid points. We could have turned the game around with a better defence. We’ll just consider this as a bad day. Every team has one and we hope we don’t have many more from now on.