Sunil Kumar: We have to play for the team and not ourselves

Gujarat Fortunegiants managed a 34-29 victory over Jaipur Pink Panthers at the Tau Devilal Sports Complex in Panchkula on Sunday. Representing Gujarat Fortunegiants at the post-match press conference were captain Sunil Kumar and coach Manpreet Singh. Taking questions for the home side were stand-in captain Deepak Niwas Hooda and coach Srinivas Reddy.

Gujarat Fortunegiants

Q: What do you have to say about today’s game?

Manpreet Singh: We are coming towards the end of our league phase and the team is really well settled. It is important for us to win our remaining games if we want to top our zone. The plan was to win big today, but we committed a few errors. We will try and experiment in our next game.

Q: Do you think everyone contributed equally today?

Sunil Kumar: We are not a one player team. All 20 players in our squad are quite good. Ruturaj Koravi managed some brilliant tackles today. The defence and offence have been performing quite well.

Q: Who are your key players for the Playoffs?

Sunil Kumar: Kabaddi is a team game. We have to play for Gujarat Fortunegiants and not ourselves, so everyone is key for us.

Jaipur Pink Panthers

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

Srinivas Reddy: We went in for unnecessary advanced tackles and gave away points. Their raiders were under pressure at that time and we should have taken advantage of that. Our defence tried to be aggressive against them. We could have enforced the All-Out and controlled the game then.

Q: Tell us about the form of the raiders.

Srinivas Reddy: If you look at any of the other teams, they all have only one lead raider while the rest are all supporting raiders. Ajinkya Pawar is a supporting raider for Deepak Niwas Hooda as well and is performing his role as expected.