Our combinations are working really well, says BC Ramesh

A relentless collective display by Bengal Warriors, spearheaded by a Maninder Singh Super 10, helped them register a resounding 43-23 win over Puneri Paltan at the DOME@NSCI SVP Stadium in Mumbai on Monday. At the post-match press conference, Coach BC Ramesh and Maninder Singh were present for Bengal Warriors, while Puneri Paltan were represented by Surjeet Singh and coach Anup Kumar.

Bengal Warriors

Q. Tell us your thoughts on today’s match.

BC Ramesh: Our defence played really well. The players worked on all the mistakes they had made in the previous match and improved their game for this match. I examined all our previous errors with the team and explained to them that we should not be making those errors again this time. That was the plan and we strategized accordingly. We rested K. Prapanjan a little today and went with Nabibakhsh. We wanted to test him out again and this time he was successful.

Q. Your team has picked up really well after your previous loss. How happy are you with this result?

BC Ramesh: The combination of our defenders and raiders has been working really well. We played with different raiders and tried everything from a long defence to a short defence. Now we have an idea of which players work best in what situation.

Q. Do you think momentum is on your side now after this result?

BC Ramesh: After our first win everyone thought that momentum is on our side and we faced a loss in our next game. So, it is very difficult to say which game will go your way.

Puneri Paltan

Q. Where do you think the errors happened?

Anup Kumar: I think both departments are responsible for today’s result. In the beginning, the raiders did not deliver as expected which is why our rate of scoring was slow. Raiders are supposed to score quickly at the start which did not happen.

Q. Will we get to see more of your substitute raiders Pankaj Mohite and Amit Kumar in the coming games?

Anup Kumar: That depends on the match. We will see who we are playing against. They will definitely get a chance to showcase their talent.

Q. Your next match is against Patna Pirates which is a tough team. How are you preparing?

Anup Kumar: All the matches are tough and we will try and put up a fight in all of them. We tried that today as well. When a player is on the mat, he doesn’t look at reducing the margin of defeat, his only aim is to give his 100% so that the team can win the match. But if the lead goes beyond a certain point it becomes difficult to recover. The other team gets confidence as well. We will try and avoid that going forward.