PKL 2019 | Strategy was to play bit defensive at start, explains Ram Mehar Singh

Patna Pirates lost their second home game on Sunday by a huge margin of 20-41 against Puneri Paltan. The match started with full domination of the Paltan and after an inflicting an all-out, the visitors had taken a 14-0 lead in the first half. After the conclusion of the game, Patna coach Ram Mehar Singh highlighted this as the major reason behind their defeat in yesterday’s game.

“Absolutely. You are right because our strategy was to play a bit defensive at the start and ensure they (Puneri Paltan) can’t advance much while raiding. Pardeep Narwal, Jang Kun Lee and Mohammad Esmaeil Maghsoudlou couldn’t successfully complete a raid at the start plus our defence also made some mistakes so, we were under pressure from the start. Hence, I view this loss as a shortcoming in attack at the start of the match. We also made some mistakes in defence towards the end of the game,” Ram Mehar was quoted as saying by the PKL website.

With most of the players failing to perform in this season for the team, Ram Mehar also hinted at some changes in the starting 7 for the next matches. They will play two more games in their home leg and Pardeep Narwal’s poor run continues to trouble the Patna coach.

“We need to plan and analyse what the weakness of the opponent is. However, I’d like to say that there’s no weak team in Season 7 of VIVO Pro Kabaddi. If we take any team lightly, we’ll have to face the consequences.

“See, I feel that his speed and reflexes are very strong. I keep reminding him of that because unless he starts performing well, we will have problems,” the experienced coach concluded.