Day 50 of the Pro Kabaddi League will witness two big games with U Mumba taking on Gujarat Giants in the first battle while Bengaluru Bulls and UP Yoddhas will face off in the second game.
U Mumba is currently at the seventh spot with nine victories so far whereas Gujarat Giants are in the second last spot. They are almost in a do-or-die situation to win every match from here. They have won six games in the season to date. A couple of victories from here can take them up in the points table.
Bengaluru Bulls and UP Yoddhas are in the third and fourth spots respectively. Both teams are in a safe position so far to enter the playoffs. Still, they would want not to take any risk from now onwards. With Bengaluru Bulls winning 11 matches out of 19 to date, the Yoddhas have played 18 matches and have won 10 out of them.
Let us take a look at the previews and predictions of the Day 50 matches:
Match 118: U Mumba vs Gujarat Giants
The doors are open for U Mumba for the playoffs as they have won nine games so far. They are currently in the seventh position and would want to win from here. The previous game against Haryana Steelers was a close one for the Mumbai-based franchise as they lost the battle 33-35 in the end. The defence was phenomenal with Rinku and Mohit scoring nine points together.
On the other hand, Gujarat Giants finally won the match after four straight losses. They became victorious in their previous battle against Puneri Paltan who is in the second position in the points table. Parteek Dahiya single-handedly took the game away from Paltan with his exceptional show. He scored 19 raid points and got decent support from Chandran Ranjit and Sonu.
The battle between U Mumba and Gujarat Giants will be a close one for sure. It will be U Mumba’s defence vs Gujarat Giants’ raiders. Both Giants and U Mumba have competed against each other 11 times where the Giants have won six times while the Men in Orange won on just four occasions.
Looking at the current performance, Parteek Dahiya will be the player to watch out for in this match. For U Mumba, Rinku will be on everyone’s list after having a magnificent previous game. The prediction for this game is not easy but U Mumba will be slightly ahead of Gujarat Giants. Gujarat’s raiders need to give some more support to Parteek Dahiya if they want to win this encounter.
Predicted Starting Seven
U Mumba: Guman Singh, Rahul Sethpal, Harendra Kumar, Ashish, Jai Bhagwan, Rinku ©, Mohit
Gujarat Giants: Sonu, Sourav Gulia, Arkam Shaikh, Parteek Dahiya, Chandran Ranjit ©, Shankar Gadai, Rinku Narwal
Match 119: Bengaluru Bulls vs UP Yoddhas
The Bulls lost their previous battle badly against Jaipur Pink Panthers with a margin of 20 points. Only Bharat could perform in the match as he scored a Super 10. The rest of the players failed to deliver against the Men in Pink.
On the other hand, UP Yoddhas made a terrific comeback in the season with three back-to-back victories. They won the close encounter against the Warriors to complete their hat-trick of victories on Monday. Skipper Pardeep Narwal was the showstopper once again for his side with 14 raid points to his name.
The game against Bengaluru Bulls will be a tough one for the Yoddha. The loser of this game might not be much affected, but still, the victory is going to be on the minds of both sides. Talking about their head-to-head battles, both have been involved in 12 matches to date in PKL history where the Bulls have won seven matches while the Yoddhas became victorious five times.
Pardeep Narwal and Vikash Khandola will be the players to watch out for in this match. Both are champions in their respective squads and would not want to leave any chance of beating each other. Looking at the current performance, UP Yoddhas will be the favorites to win this match.
Predicted Starting Seven
UP Yoddhas: Pardeep Narwal ©, Gurdeep, Ashu Singh, Sandeep Narwal, Rohit Tomar, Nitesh Kumar, Sumit
Bengaluru Bulls: Vikash Khandola, Mayur Kadam, Mahender Singh ©, Bharat, Neeraj Narwal, Saurabh Nandal, Aman