Winning more important than individual performances, insists Krishan Kumar Hooda

Dabang Delhi K.C. returned to the vivo Pro Kabaddi Season 7 summit after a 43-39 win over Patna Pirates at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Thursday. Patna Pirates looked like they were on course for a win, however, a late rally from Dabang Delhi K.C. gave them the victory. After the match, Dabang Delhi K.C.’s coach Krishan Kumar Hooda, captain Joginder Narwal, raider Vijay and Naveen Kumar spoke to reporters at the post-match press conference, while coach Ram Mehar Singh and Pardeep Narwal represented Patna Pirates.

Dabang Delhi K.C.

Q. Coach, another win to return to the top of the table. Tell us your thoughts on Naveen’s performance?

Krishan Kumar Hooda: Naveen as you saw, of course, continues to perform but along with him, the rest of the team’s also been performing. Our combinations and styles are working. Naveen has been getting us points from the start and Joginder Narwal has also been tackling consistently. Overall, we are playing well and the whole team is doing good. You’ve seen my team play and winning is what’s most important. So, I don’t dwell on individual performances much, the win is all that counts.

Q. Joginder, was Vijay’s five-point raid the turning point?

Joginder Narwal: Yes, we had discussed with the coach and everyone around about not giving up after the second All-Out. We continued to persist and play regardless of the result and I knew that we have game-changing raiders as well as defenders in the team.

Q. Naveen, happy with yet another Super 10?

Naveen Kumar: I am very happy and pleased with the Super 10 but the main thing is that the team won, which is most important.

Patna Pirates

Q. Coach, do you feel that your defence is letting the team down?

Ram Mehar Singh:  I agree with your assessment and feel the same way. Regardless of how many points Pardeep scores for the team, we cannot win if our defence continues to make the same mistakes.

Q. What has been Patna Pirates’ main problem this season?

Ram Mehar Singh: It’s just that after the first four or five matches of the season, our defence kept making mistakes at crucial junctures of the game. If you look at our raiding numbers, then it’ll reveal that we are fourth highest in that table and we have the third most tackle point as well as Super Tackles this season. So, I feel it’s just about the last few minutes of matches, which we could have controlled better defensively. If we could have prevented games from changing in the last few minutes, then we would be higher in the standings.