The caravan of Pro Kabaddi League Season 9 has completed its league stage and is heading towards the City of Dreams where the knockout phase will be carried out. The solitary of PKL 9 playoffs, Mumbai’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Indoor Stadium will be hosting the first Eliminator clash between the defending champions Dabang Delhi and the sixth-edition winners Bengaluru Bulls on Tuesday from 7:30 PM onwards.
The defending champions somehow managed to save themselves from getting knocked out in the league stage of their title-defense campaign. And now the Naveen Express and his Dabang Fauj are ready to march towards the knockout stages with an aim to become the only second Pro Kabaddi franchise to successfully defend their crown. The dynamic gaffer of Bengaluru Bulls, Randhir Singh Sehrawat is also set to guide the Red and Blacks into the PKL playoffs for the record sixth time.
It seems like the Bengaluru gaffer Randhir Singh Sehrawat has finally found his key to success for the cover-defense department in the form of Maharashtrian maestro Sudhakar Kadam. The National Silver medalist defender was the second-most successful defender against Mumba from the Bulls camp with 4 tackle points and will be pairing up with the skipper Mahender Singh in the Starting Seven. Bharat Hooda who only appeared on the bench during their last league fixture will be making his grand comeback to the battlefield of playoffs.
Another rising star in the defensive ranks of the Dabanggs
Krishan Kumar Hooda is unlikely to make any changes in the Delhi lineup which he fielded against Bengal Warriors to sustain further the positive momentum. Deepak Singroha recently scored his PKL career’s maiden High 5 to emerge as the highest-scoring defender of the game. The Haryana-based National medalist has cemented his place in the right-cover position after consecutive fine performances which means the veteran Ravi Kumar would be left out on the bench.
How have they done so far?
The Karnataka-based franchise had a storming start to the Post-Pawan era as they looked like prime contenders for the Top 2 in the initial stages of the ninth edition. However, the fully charged Bulls couldn’t match the consistency of the heavyweights Puneri Paltan and Jaipur Pink Panthers and had to satisfy with the third position. Bengaluru faced U Mumba in the dead-rubber clash of their last league fixture which resulted in the Bulls ending up on the losing side with a 36-30 scoreline.
On the other hand, the Capital-based also had a dream start of five straight triumphs in the first five games of their title-defense campaign. However, the triumphant run was followed by a dreaded losing streak where the Delhi Blues looked completely clueless and their playoff hopes were also almost over. Then the captain Naveen Goyat and senior Dabangs of Delhi stepped up to fetch eight points in the last two matches in order to seal their playoff berth.
Head to Head record
The recent success has put the Capital-based franchise ahead with a slight edge over its counterparts in the head-to-head record of this rivalry. The head-to-head count currently stands in the favor of the Dabanggs on a scoreline of 9-8 while two out of 19 encounters between them consummated on equivalent scorelines.
However, the Bengaluru Bulls side emerged victorious in both encounters of the Season 9 to complete their first double over the Delhi Blues since the second edition. The hero of that night was the Towering Bull raider Bharat Hooda who scored a whopping tally of 20 raid points at an incredible strike rate of 100 to stun the defending champions.
In the second chapter of the rivalry, Bharat went on to overwrite his previous individual tally and registered 23 raid points at the strike rate of 96 to keep his team on the winning side of a high-scoring thriller. The PKL universe witnessed two nail-biting encounters between them as a total of 191 points were scored across two games while the 7 Super 10s and 2 High 5s were achieved by the individuals.
Key Players
Will the towering assassin be able to extend his purple patch into the knockouts?
Bharat Hooda: All eyes will be on the Bengaluru strike raider Bharat who is having his breakthrough season while standing second in the individual raid points leaderboard. The Services assailant has a great record against Delhi’s defense this season as he has already scored 43 raid points at the strike rate of 98 in the earlier two encounters. However, the pressure of playoffs hit differently as Hooda managed to score only four raid points when he faced the same opposition in the Semi Final clash of the previous edition.
Naveen Goyat: It is an undeniable fact that if Delhi wants to successfully defend their PKL title then the Naveen Express has to score raid points at the fastest speed he can. Despite the on-and-off form of his side, the Dabang skipper has been consistently scoring raid points and is just four points away from crossing the individual milestone of 250 raid points in a season. When the last time Naveen faced the Red and Blacks defense at the playoff stages, he smashed a match-winning Super 10 by scoring 13 raid points.
Predicted Starting 7s
Bengaluru Bulls: Bharat Hooda, Vikash Kandola, Neeraj Narwal; Mahender Singh (c), Sudhakar Kadam; Aman Antil, Saurabh Nandal
Dabang Delhi: Naveen Goyat, Vijay Malik, Ashu Malik; Vishal Lather, Ravi Kumar; Sandeep Dhull, Amit Hooda
Prediction
Bengaluru must be aiming to avenge their semifinal exit of the previous season by eliminating them in the Eliminator round itself. The raiding units of both sides are star-studded and the main strength of their team hence it is speculated that we will get to see another high-scoring saga between these two combatants. Keeping the key factors like current form, recent face-offs and team combination in consideration, the Bulls outclass their counterparts to become favorites for this encounter.