Srinivas Reddy: Luck favoured Gujarat Fortunegiants towards the end

A low-scoring thriller in Jaipur saw home team Jaipur Pink Panthers and Gujarat Fortunegiants play out a 28-28 tie at the Sawai Mansingh on Saturday. At the post-match press conference, Coach Srinivas Reddy, skipper Deepak Niwas Hooda and defender Vishal were present for Jaipur Pink Panthers while Manpreet Singh and Rohit Gulia turned up for Gujarat Fortunegiants.

Jaipur Pink Panthers

Q. Thoughts on the second half of the match?

Srinivas Reddy: Our defenders went for some advanced tackles in the second half but the same defence also helped us come back into the match. There was a point where we were on the verge of losing the match. But our defenders managed tackles with only two of them on the mat, multiple times, which is good to see.

Q. Thoughts on the last raid of the match?

Srinivas Reddy: In kabaddi, it is not that only a good player can cross the baulk or bonus line all the time and the rest will always be unable to. Some things are dictated by the situation. It was a desperate situation for them so they had to play that line. This situation arises many times and playing a baulk line defence is one of the strategies of the game. That is what they did. Today, luck favoured them so they were successful or else we could easily have gotten three points and won the match.

Q. What will the strategy be going forward?

Srinivas Reddy: I am happy that we managed to get three points out of this contest. These three points mean a lot in the race for the playoffs. I am happy with this result. We will only start planning for the coming matches later at night. Right now is not the time to start thinking ahead immediately.

Gujarat Fortunegiants

Q. You played close to the baulk line in the end and ended up with a successful tackle. What was the plan during that time?

Manpreet Singh: If we were unsuccessful at that time then we could have lost the match. But we had decided that it doesn’t matter if we lose by one point or two in the end. We wanted to take that risk. Luckily for us, it paid off.