Playing as a team is Jaipur Pink Panthers’ strength, feels Srinivas Reddy

Jaipur Pink Panthers rode on High 5s by Sandeep Dhull and Amit Hooda, along with an 8-raid-point performance by Deepak Narwal to defeat Patna Pirates at their home at the Patliputra Indoor Stadium in Patna on Saturday. In the post-match press conference, Jaipur Pink Panthers were represented by Coach Srinivas Reddy, Deepak Hooda and Amit Hooda while Pardeep Narwal and Coach Ram Mehar Singh turned up for Patna Pirates.

Jaipur Pink Panthers

You had some new heroes in today’s match. Was that unexpected?

Srinivas Reddy: It wasn’t unexpected, but this game is unpredictable. You can’t say for sure that this or that player will score a Super 10 or High 5 in a particular game. It takes a team effort and that is the strength of Jaipur Pink Panthers. If you follow our games from the beginning, you will see that we have everyone from Amit Hooda, Sandeep Dhull and Nitin Rawal performing. Each of our seven players is always contributing to the win.

You were doing well in the first half and then Sandeep Dhull took over in the defence. What discussion did you have with him?

Amit Hooda: I told Sandeep Dhull that now Pardeep Narwal will be watching out for me and so will their other raiders. This is the time you will have to tackle them and I will support you. That was our plan and it succeeded.

You decided to play safe today and send Deepak Narwal for more raids. Any particular reason for that?

Deepak Hooda: I was putting in safe raids because of the situation at that time. It was necessary for me to be on the mat and control the situation. Momentum was on our side so I decided to control the team rather than raid aggressively. That is why I was sending Deepak Narwal to raid. Another thing is that the more I am on the mat the higher the team’s confidence is since I can contribute in defence as well.

Patna Pirates

Thoughts on this match?

Ram Mehar Singh: This result does feel disappointing. Our raiders weren’t able to do well consistently and the defence, too, made some mistakes. But I feel it was our raiding that cost us this match today.

Tell us about your defence today.

Ram Mehar Singh: If we have only a few raid points in the first half then the defence can’t really pull things back on their own.

Do you think the moment you got Super Tackled when they were on the verge of an All-Out was a pivotal point in the game?

Pardeep Narwal: Yes, I think that moment was quite vital. If we were successful at that point we could have taken the match down to the end.