U Mumba won their second game at home, defeating U.P. Yoddha at the Dome@NSCI SVP Stadium on Tuesday. Representing U Mumba at the post-match press-conference were captain Fazel Atrachali, coach Gholamreza Mahmoud Mazandarani, Surender Singh and Siddharth Desai. Taking questions for U.P. Yoddha were captain Rishank Devadiga and assistant coach Arjun Singh

U Mumba

Q: How do you feel after today’s performance and how much do you learn being with Fazel Atrachali?

Surender Singh: It’s a good feeling to win today’s game after losing our previous two matches. We committed a few errors in those games which we didn’t commit today. We played according to strategy. Not only Fazel Atrachali, I have the support of the whole team. Fazel Atrachali’s presence on the mat motivates you a lot. You attempt tackles you otherwise wouldn’t attempt and get points out of them.

Q: Do you think frequently changing your raiders can cause U Mumba to lose crucial matches?

Fazel Atrachali: Every match is different. We had a different strategy for this game. In their previous match, U.P. Yoddha’s corners committed a lot of mistakes and we wanted to take advantage of that. We had Darshan Kadian in the starting lineup keeping this in mind. We might change it again next match depending on our strategy. 

Q: What do you think about Bengaluru Bulls’ team?

Gholamreza Mahmoud Mazandarani: They are a very good team. They have six wins after seven matches and are on top of their zone. They have some very good raiders. Pawan Kumar Sehrawat, Rohit Kumar and Kashiling Adake have been performing really well and their defence has also been performing well. But we have our strategies in place which we will discuss with the team tomorrow and try for the win.

U.P. Yoddha

Q: Your defence played very well in the first half, got four Super Tackles as well. Do you think you lacked in the raiding department?

Rishank Devadiga: We did commit quite a few errors while raiding. We should have capitalized on the opportunity we got to inflict an All-Out on U Mumba which we couldn’t. The game was quite close till then. This is where we lost the match I feel.

Q: Do you think there is anything you could have done better in this match?

Rishank Devadiga: Both of our main raiders, Prashanth Kumar Rai and myself are struggling a little with injuries, so our raiding has suffered a little and we are not able to get points we would usually have gotten. We have full confidence on our defence and they played well except for the end where they couldn’t control the game.

Q: How do you view this game?

Arjun Singh: Our defenders were outstanding in the first half. Had our raiders performed similarly, we would have had the match in our control. Our raiding department has been affected due to injuries, but had we built a lead, the pressure would have been on U Mumba and not on us. We also conceded a six-point raid and that cost us badly.