A Triple Panga night beckons at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Stadium Wrestling Hall in Pune as the likes of Bengaluru Bulls, Dabang Delhi, Telugu Titans, Gujarat Giants, Bengal Warriors, and U Mumba go live in action in PKL 9 on Saturday.
Table toppers Dabang Delhi will face off against third-placed Bengaluru Bulls in a battle for supremacy while seventh-placed Gujarat Giants won’t get a better opportunity than this to enter the top half of the table as they lock horns with bottom-placed Telugu Titans. Fifth-placed Bengal Warriors and sixth-placed U Mumba will cap off the night, with the winner most likely sneaking into the top two.
Matchday 19 promises to be an exciting affair with a lot of questions to answer. Can Dabang Delhi bounce back after two back-to-back defeats? Can Telugu Titans finally arrest their slide? Can Bengal Warriors build on the momentum by beating Delhi to go one step further? Let’s find out.
Match 45: Bengaluru Bulls vs Dabang Delhi
Bengaluru Bulls are unbeaten in their last three matches, winning twice and drawing once. A 15-point win over Tamil Thalaivas and a ten-point win over U Mumba was followed by a draw against Patna Pirates.
Bharat has picked a Super 10 in each of his last three matches while receiving support from Vikas Khandola and Neeraj Narwal as secondary and tertiary raiders. However, their problems lie in the defensive department as just 63 tackle points from 7 matches places them in the sixth spot overall. The Bulls will have to pull up their socks and it remains to be seen how they fare against Naveen Express.
Dabang Delhi, on the other hand, has found themselves on the losing side of things in their last two matches being beaten by four points against Patna Pirates and five points against Bengal Warriors.
Naveen Kumar has bagged a Super 10 in each of their previous seven PKL matches. He has even added the Dubki to his skillset, which already consists of wily hand and toe touches. However, his inability to conduct a Super Raid can prove to be costly against teams like Bengaluru Bulls.
The two teams enter the match with a contrasting set of forms. The break is likely to rejuvenate the sides but Delhi has hit a roadblock in the form of Bengaluru. Hence, we predict Bengaluru to win the tie.
Predicted Starting Seven
Bengaluru Bulls: Neeraj Narwal, Mahender Singh (C), Bharat, Aman, Rajnesh, Saurabh Nandal, Vikash Kandola
Dabang Delhi: Ravi Kumar, Vishal, Naveen Kumar (C), Manjeet, Ashu Malik, Vijay, Krishan
Match 46: Telugu Titans vs Gujarat Giants
Telugu Titans are winless in their last four matches, losing by a margin of 20 points or more against Dabang Delhi and Jaipur Pink Panthers. They did show some fight against Puneri Paltan but were unable to catch up and lost by a scoreline of 25-26.
Their raiding and defensive department are both under pressure to perform. With just 94 successful tackles to their name from 7 matches, they rank second from the bottom. Moreover, they have only 41 tackle points from 7 games, the least of all the teams.
Gujarat Giants’ two-match winning streak came to an end as they lost by a margin of eight points to U Mumba in the previous game. Prior to that, they had beaten Haryana Steelers and UP Yoddha.
The defense looked clueless in their previous encounter as they had only four tackle points to their name. The only shining light from that match is Rakesh Sungroya picking up 12 raid points.
Although the Giants lost their previous match, the encounter against Telugu Titans should be a good way to bounce back. Hence, we predict Gujarat to win the tie.
Predicted Starting Seven
Telugu Titans: Vijay Kumar, Monu Goyat (C), Adarsh T, Vishal Bhardwaj, Nitin, Vinay, Mohit
Gujarat Giants: Chandran Ranjit (C), Arkam Shaikh, Sourav Gulia, Rakesh HS, Shankar Gadai, Rinku Narwal, Prashanth Kumar Rai
Match 47: Bengal Warriors vs U Mumba
Bengal Warriors overturned the deficit early in the game to beat Dabang Delhi in their previous encounter. In the neck-to-neck encounter, Vaibhav Garje and Girish Erank both earned a ‘High Five’ to their name while Maninder Singh picked up nine tackle points.
A rock-solid unit both in terms of attack and defense, the Warriors still have a long way to go before performing as they did in Season 7 when they went on to lift the title. However, they are slowly but steadily getting their things in order.
U Mumba has had a mixed outing so far, winning twice in their last three games. The loss against Bengaluru Bulls was sandwiched between wins over Gujarat Giants and Haryana Steelers.
U Mumba has depth in their raiding unit with Guman Singh, Jai Bhagwan, and Heiderali Ekrami all stepping up when required. Defensively, Surender Singh has been able to provide both assists and notch up tackle points.
This one promises to be a close affair. However, it looks unlikely that the defense of U Mumba will be able to stop ‘Mighty Mani.’ Hence, we predict Bengal to win the match.
Predicted Starting Seven
Bengal Warriors: Maninder Singh (C), Vaibhav Garje, Girish Maruti Ernak, Shubham Shinde, Balaji D, Shrikant Jadhav, Deepak Niwas Hooda
U Mumba: Rahul Sethpl, Guman Singh, Harendra Kumar, Kiran Laxman, Jai Bhagwan, Heidarali Ekrami, Surender Singh (C)