Srinivas Reddy: The happiness of Diwali has arrived

Jaipur Pink Panthers beat Haryana Steelers 38-32 at the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex in Greater Noida on Tuesday, thus earning them their second victory of the season. Jaipur Pink Panthers were represented at the post-match press-conference by captain Anup Kumar and coach Srinivas Reddy whereas Haryana Steelers were represented by skipper Monu Goyat and coach Rambir Singh Khokhar.

Jaipur Pink Panthers

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

Srinivas Reddy: With this win, the happiness of Diwali has entered the Jaipur Pink Panthers family. Not only did Deepak Niwas Hooda play well, it was a complete team effort. We were under a lot of mental pressure after our previous losses but the way we came back today was so pleasing to see. I am very happy with our performance today.

Q: This is your first win after successive losses. How do you feel?

Srinivas Reddy: Every player and team has good and bad days. When a team has a good day, their morale increases ahead of the next match. We will hopefully continue this momentum ahead of our next few matches. Winning makes a player stress free. We have played seven games and have a long way to go. We will try to keep ourselves stress free and go to Mumbai without any pressure.

Q: You talk a lot to your team during breaks and when you raid. What do you say to them? Is it about planning against specific raiders?

Anup Kumar: You cannot plan for a raider in advance, you have to plan during the game as well. Vikash Khandola was raiding excellently today. He got Haryana Steelers a lot of bonus points. Planning for a player like him is difficult. Had he not played so well, we would have won easily, and it wouldn’t have been such a close game.

 Haryana Steelers

Q: Another close match with Jaipur Pink Panthers. What do you have to say?

Rambir Singh Khokhar: When we played Jaipur Pink Panthers last time, we suffered a similar close defeat. We were leading by five points at one point and should have closed the match off. Our defence can do better.

Q: How do you think your raiders performed today?

Rambir Singh Khokhar: Vikash Khandola has been performing brilliantly for us. In the last five minutes of today’s game though, he couldn’t perform as well as we would have liked him to. Monu Goyat wasn’t up to the mark today either. Naveen came in and gave us some hope. The youngster has been doing brilliantly in his debut season. We need one collective performance from them.