PKL 2019 | Errors in the dying minutes cost us, believes Srinivas Reddy
Jaipur Pink Panthers’ coach Srinivas Reddy, after their fourth consecutive loss, has said that even though his team fought well in the match, the mistakes in the last few minutes cost them. He also talked about the turning point of the match which handed Dabang Delhi a two-point win last night.
After successive abject performances, Jaipur Pink Panthers performed better in the match against table toppers Dabang Delhi. They had a shaky start to the match as Chandran Ranjit managed to oust four of their players in his very first raid. Post the raid, Jaipur found themselves on the backfoot which led to an all-out and opened up a 7 points lead for Delhi. Jaipur, however, managed to script a great comeback which included a Super-Raid to cut down the deficit to just three points at the end of the first half.Â
“I am a bit speechless. You all witnessed what happened out there. We made a couple of errors in the last minute or so and that cost us the game. We played an excellent match and the young boys in our team stood out. But, the errors due to inexperience cost us the match,” Jaipur Pink Panthers coach Srinivas Reddy said in the post-match press conference.
They did well in the second half as they avoided an all-out with the help of Super tackles and turned the tables on Delhi to inflict an all-out of their own. With the wind in their sails, they managed to open up a 6 point lead with only 9 minutes left on the clock. However, Naveen Kumar gained points in successive raids and helped his side inflict another all-out with only 1 minute left on the clock.
“We went in for an advanced tackle when the onus was on the raider to score. So instead of holding a deep line, our defenders went in and tried to tackle him and he managed to score two points,” coach Reddy explained.
In their raiding department, Deepak Niwas Hooda showed signs of coming back in form as he scored 9 points but he failed to score points at crucial moments of the match. Nitin Rawal supported him well as he finished the match with 7 points in his kitty. In defence, almost every defender contributed and scored more the two-points.Â
“The played brilliantly for the majority of the match because of their natural aggression and fearless attitude. But towards the end, we didn’t keep our wits and we ended up losing. That happens when the team isn’t as experienced,” skipper Deepak Niwas Hooda concluded.