Our raiders and defenders performed well, notes Ram Mehar Singh

Manpreet Singh believes his side lost the plot in the second half.

Ram Mehar Singh's Gujarat Giants won a close encounter against Manpreet Singh's Haryana Steelers by just four points (42-38) in PKL 9. Haryana was leading in the first half and had the advantage but since the start of the second half, the game turned into Gujarat Giants' favour with Haryana Steelers committing too many errors. Coach Ram Mehar Singh was happy with Gujarat’s performance with both the raiders and defenders contributing to the team’s win.

Gujarat Giants: Coach Ram Mehar Singh, Rakesh Kumar and captain Chandran Ranjith

Thoughts about the close win against Haryana Steelers? 

Gujarat Giants won a close encounter against Haryana Steelers in a topsy-turvy match where both teams were in the lead. Gujarat Giants coach praised both the raiding and defence department for the win.

Ram Mehar Singh said, "This is our second consecutive win and the team is high on confidence but going into this match we had the pressure before the start itself. The match tilted in both teams' favour. At the start we were leading then after a super tackle at around the 15-min mark Haryana took the lead then in the end we won. I have been saying this since the first match whichever team's raiding and the defensive unit performs well will win the match. Both our raiders and defenders performed well today.”

Captain's view regarding the match.

Captain Chandran Ranjith praised Rakesh Kumar for his raiding skills in PKL 9. Ranjith elaborated on how the team fared the whole match and won the match in a close contest.

Captain was happy with the win and said ” The raiders performed well but the defence fared poorly at the start. After the first half both the raiders and defenders performed well simultaneously resulting in the win. Rakesh has been excellent and whenever he gets out I try to score points and revive him.”

Haryana Steelers: Coach Manpreet Singh and captain Joginder Narwal

Any specific reason for the loss?

Coach Manpreet Singh spoke about how the defensive unit failed to perform in crucial situations losing the match in PKL 9. After holding the lead Haryana Steelers failed to capitalize on it.

Manpreet Singh quipped, ”It was a good match but after the half time we lost the plot as the defence started to lose points was the reason behind us losing.

Is the team under pressure in crucial situations?

Haryana Steelers retained a few players from the last season and changed the core team along with the inclusion of a new coach. Joginder Narwal was confident that the team is under no pressure and will definitely go forward and win more matches.

Joginder Nawal said, ”The team is under no pressure and with the coach's input we played our game. Winning and losing are part and parcel of the game which happens to every team. We have been losing in the crunch situations which can be due to bad luck but should not continue for a long time.