After edging Haryana and Jaipur to qualify for playoffs, Puneri Paltan will be taking on the balanced roster of UP Yoddha in the first eliminator of the Pro Kabaddi League Season 8. Where the Puneri Paltan side led by Nitin Tomar and Nitesh’s Yoddhas from the land of Uttar Pradesh are squaring off each other at Sheraton Grand Whitefield Hotel in Bengaluru.
Passing through the nightmares of Surjeet’s reign, Captain Nitin Tomar has upheld the pride of Pune and now he has decided to relinquish his homeland UP to take Paltan to the semifinals. Nitin was captain of the Yoddhas in their debut PKL season where they were eliminated by Pune but the star all-rounder is destined to lead the orange side against red and blue this time.
Interestingly, Pune and UP are the only two PKL teams to have their youth side and this developmental venture has benefited both franchises. Puneri Paltan promoted the likes of Aslam Inamdar, Pankaj Mohite, Sanket Sawant, Balasaheb Jadhav, Abinesh Nadarajan, Shubham Shelke, and Akash Shinde from Yuva Paltan to the first team. While captain Nitesh Kumar, Gulveer Singh, Gurdeep, Ankush, Surender Gill, Ashu Singh, Rohit Tomar, etc.
UP players were featured in the developmental side which played in the All India Kabaddi Championship in Goregaon. Railways star raider Shrikant Jadhav is likely to make it to the Starting 7 replacing Ankush who couldn’t score a single point in the last two given opportunities.
On the other hand, Anup won’t be taking any risk to break the golden combination which has done wonders for the Maharashtrian outfit. Although we may see legendary Rahul Chaudhari back on the substitute bench as Pune coach has mentioned earlier that he is preparing the veteran for the knockout games.
How have they done so far?
UP coach wanted to give a statement initially by benching Pardeep Narwal that Yoddhas will be aiming at team efforts rather than individual brilliance. And this fearless Uttar Pradesh roster has executed exactly how gaffer Jasveer instructed them. The red and blues have won five from their last six fixtures and will be taking the field to fulfill their ultimate goal of playing the debut PKL final.
No one but the Puneri Paltan squad and coaching deserves the credits for this incredible turnaround of the season eight campaign. It’s a fairytale for Pune’s ‘Bhaari’ Paltan, the way youngsters barged into the Starting 7 and took them through the playoffs. The Maharashtrian outfit hasn’t been able to make it through the eliminator round since the fourth edition and this responsibility will be on the young shoulders of Pune’s rising stars.
Head to Head record
A short but intense history of this head-to-head rivalry between UP and Pune is steered by the Yoddha franchise with four wins while Paltan’s count is currently on three. Since the elimination from the hands of Paltan in the debut season, UP registered four straight wins against its counterparts. And the Yoddha’s winning streak of four matches was finally broken by Paltan in their previous face-off with the help of heroics from Mohit and Aslam.
Key Players
Surender Gill will be out for the raid points hunt once again
Surender Gill: Surender was slowed down a bit owing to Pardeep’s late resurgence but the UP raider will take the lead raider spot from the record-breaker in no time as he will be invading his favorite opponents in the forthcoming fixture.
Gill could score just 10 raid points from two games against Pune in his debut season but his Season 8 statistics against the Maharashtrian franchise are incredible. He has scored 37 raid points with a whopping strike rate of 103% against the counterparty in this season so far.
Mohit Goyat: As a raider, Mohit has consistently performed throughout the season eight caravan but his defensive contributions have been absolutely commendable lately. Apart from 28 raid points, the Bhaini School product has also scored 11 tackle points from the last three games and topped the individual points tally on each occasion.
He completed the High 5 but missed the golden opportunity of scoring Super 10 in the same match by just a single raid point in the Do-or-Die fixture with Jaipur and it seems like the youngster will sustain his hunger for points in playoffs too.
Predicted Starting 7’s
U.P. Yoddha: Pardeep Narwal, Surender Gill, Shrikant Jadhav, Ashu Singh, Shubham Kumar Baliyan, Nitesh Kumar (C), Sumit Sangwan
Puneri Paltan: Aslam Inamdar, Mohit Goyat, Nitin Tomar (C), Abinesh Nadarajan, Sanket Sawant, Vishal Bharadwaj, Sombir
Prediction
The encounter is expected to be high-scoring as the average team score from head-to-head rivalry among these two is 42 this season. UP lost the last face-off as the Yoddha defense could score only two tackle points throughout the 40 minutes of play hence the defensive department will be crucial to name us a winner from this clash as Patna Pirates are eagerly waiting for them in the first semifinal.