Rishank Devadiga: Our defence has been the driving force for us

U.P. Yoddha won a thrilling contest 34-32 to record their first ever victory over U Mumba at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Indoor Stadium in Kolkata on Saturday. Representing U.P. Yoddha at the post-match press conference were captain Rishank Devadiga and assistant coach Arjun Singh.

U.P. Yoddha

Q: What do you have to say about the match today?

Arjun Singh: We played according to our strategies. We had been planning for this game since the past couple of days and it paid off. We played with three raiders and we also knew that Rishank Devadiga will play a big role today. He is just recovering from an injury and played well today. Our defence was excellent as well. Our main target was Siddharth Desai. We had to tackle him, and the game was ours for the taking.

Q: What do you feel about the performance of your raiders?

Rishank Devadiga: I haven’t been fully fit for the past few matches, so I found it difficult to play. Today I was completely confident as we had a long time to recover after our previous match. I wanted to lead the team well since U Mumba is a very good side. The plan was to reduce the number of mistakes that we have been making in our previous games and we were successful in doing that.

Q: Comments on your defence?

Rishank Devadiga: Over the past 3-4 matches, our defence has been making very few mistakes. They have been the driving force for us over these games and the confidence of the raiders has increased because of our defenders. We know that if we are caught out by the opponents, our defence is strong enough to revive us. Not only Sachin Kumar, but our entire defence played as a unit and that worked in our favour.