Patna Pirates coach Ram Mehar Singh delighted with defensive display

Patna Pirates secured their first win of VIVO Pro Kabaddi Season 7 with a commanding 34-22 win over Telugu Titans at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium in Hyderabad on Saturday. 'Record-Breaker' Pardeep Narwal led the offence with 7 raid points while Jaideep inspired in defence, raking in 6 tackle points.

At the post-match press conference, Patna Pirates were represented by coach Ram Mehar Singh while coach Gholamreza Mazandarani was present from Telugu Titans’ side.

Patna Pirates

Q. Must be a relief to win the first match. Your thoughts?

Ram Mehar Singh: Even if you see the match, we lost against Bengaluru Bulls, we were in control for the majority of the match. A few defensive mistakes cost us the game eventually. Today, our defence redeemed itself brilliantly. I would like to appreciate the defence for the shift they put in today. Hopefully, we will get even better and can put in even better performances.

Q. On your plans to stop Siddharth Desai.

Ram Mehar Singh: Siddharth Desai was brilliant during Season 6 and proved himself to be a top upcoming raider. I was very happy the way my defence tackled him today. Every team makes plans to stop top raiders but it's very different when the players are on the mat. Our intention was to aggressively tackle him whenever the opportunity presents itself. It was successful.

Q. The focus seemed to be on the defence today. Why?

Ram Mehar Singh: From the start, the defence was working well. We made a few mistakes while raiding initially but with the defence working well, we weren't under any pressure. As long as we were in the lead, we didn't need to force the issue. With the lead with us, they had to put in advanced tackles.

Telugu Titans

Q. Views on Siddharth Desai’s performances so far?

Gholamreza Mazandarani: If we look at all the top raiders in the league this season, you can see that they have found it difficult to score raid points this year. It's no different with Siddharth. He is no longer a new player like last season, so opposition teams have studied and created a plan to keep him quiet.

Q. Your take on the home leg?

Gholamreza Mazandarani: We haven't been defending very well from the start and that's been costing us. It is putting us under pressure. But it's still early and what we're going to do over the next 4-5 days is to analyse what went wrong, regroup and change the results.