The caravan of the Pro Kabaddi League Season 9 moves to the Terrific Tuesday where two mouth-watering clashes are lining up to take place. The action-packed saga of Matchday 11 will be held at Shree Kanteerava Indoor Stadium of Bengaluru from 7:30 PM onwards.
The second-most successful PKL raider Maninder Singh of Bengal Warriors will be up against his former side Jaipur Pink Panthers in the opening fixture of the day. Then, the action will be moving to the second and final clash in the Battle of Survival between Telugu Titans and Puneri Paltan where the stakes for the five match-points will be much higher.
Match 26: Bengal Warriors vs Jaipur Pink Panthers
The two of the deadliest raiding forces and invulnerable defensive units of PKL 9 will be squaring off at the battlefield to fight for the throne of ninth edition standings. Both of them kick-started their ninth edition campaign with a defeat which raised many questions about the high-profile names of both sides who could not live up to the expectations. However, the unforgettable scenes from the opening fixtures quickly vanished from the memories of fans after their winning streak of three games which is still on.
The Super-sub Bhavani Rajput proving himself as the trump card of second-half
The Services youngster Arjun Deshwal has fetched 43 raid points from four appearances along with a couple of Super 10s. The Jaipur right rider will be indulged in a direct battle with the left-corner of Bengal Warriors Girish Maruti Ernak who is also enjoying his purple patch this season. The Maharashtrian defender is currently sitting right at the top of the tackle points charts with a whopping total of 17 points from four games.
The head-to-head record between these two old foes is heavily dominated by the Sky Blues on a scoreline of 10-4 despite the initial dominance of the inaugural champions. The duo of K Bhaskaran and Maninder Singh will be up against the franchise with whom they lifted the prestigious inaugural season trophy. Jaipur skipper Sunil Kumar Malik will be commanding his defense against an in-form Bengal attack which scored 29 raid points against Pirates.
Bhaskaran may not consider any changes in the Starting Seven featured in their Patna clash to sustain the winning momentum further. The NYP product Vaibhav Garje recently scored four tackle points while donning the right-cover position and is likely to retain his place in the lineup. The Iranian left-cover defender Reza Mirbagheri has joined the Pink Panthers camp but is still waiting for his turn to make his debut at the grandest stage of Kabaddi.
The raiding strength of both combatants is almost equivalent to each other as it will be the defensive equation which will decide who will be standing tall at full-time whistle on Tuesday. The Kolkata-based outfit has a slight edge over the Western counterparts after having the best successful tackle percentage of 45.92% in the league.
Predicted Starting Seven
Bengal Warriors: Maninder Singh (C), Shrikant Jadhav, Deepak Niwas Hooda; Balaji Dhanapal, Vaibhav Garje; Girish Ernak, Shubham Shinde
Jaipur Pink Panthers: Arjun Deshwal, Rahul Chaudhari, Ajith Kumar; Reza Mirbagheri, Sunil Kumar (C); Ankush Rathee, Sahul Kumar
Match 27: Telugu Titans vs Puneri Paltan
Aslam’s raiding prowess is getting better with the relevance of captaincy burden
The PKL 9 journey of both of these combatants is almost similar to each other as we all expected them to rule the standings but their campaigns have fared quite unexpectedly to date. Telugu’s grand comeback of a nine-point triumph over the Patna Pirates was followed by another disastrous outcome against the defending champions.
On the other hand, Paltan’s campaign has also been derailed from the track after their 34-34 settlement with the three-time champions in the opening fixture.
The leading position in this head-to-head rivalry belonged to the Hyderabad-based franchise until the year 2018 but the tables have drastically turned ever since then. The Orange Stallions have emerged victorious over the opponents from the Southern land nine times while Telugu has six triumphs from 16 face-offs. Pune will be stepping out on the battlefield of the 11th matchday with an ultimate aim to extend their five-match winning streak furthermore.
Aslam Inamdar registered his career-best performance against Gujarat scoring 19 raid points consisting of 12 bonuses and 7 touches. The responsibility to stop the Puneri ‘Jumping Jack’ from fetching breakthroughs will be on the experienced shoulders of Surjeet and Vishal Bharadwaj who were also once his teammates at Paltan.
In their previous fixture against Delhi where every Titan failed, the raiding prodigy Vinay Redhu still managed to stay consistent and garnered 6 touches, 3 bonuses and a solitary tackle point.
Manjeet Chhillar may call his former companion and current first-choice captain Ravinder Pahal back on the mat in place of Vijay Kumar who has failed to capitalise on the given chances. The Iranian superstars’ arrival has added immense power to the on-paper strength of the Maharashtrian outfit.
Skipper Fazel Atrachali and Mohammad Nabibakhsh may take more time to settle down amidst the acclimatisation issues however, there will be no stopping for them once they finally get the rhythm.
We witnessed the wrath of Titans against Patna Pirates when the high-profile knights in Black and Yellows teamed up nicely and trampled down the tough opposition. However, we can’t rule out a team which is under the leadership of Iranian Sultan Fazel Atrachali and has raiding options of shining stars like Aslam Inamdar and Mohit Goyat.
Predicted Starting Seven
Telugu Titans: Vinay Redhu, Siddharth Desai, Monu Goyat; Parvesh Bhainswal, Surjeet (C); Vishal Bharadwaj, Ankit Sharma
Puneri Paltan: Aslam Inamdar, Mohit Goyat, Mohammad Nabibakhsh; Sanket Sawant, Rakesh Goyat; Fazel Atrachali (C), Gaurav Khatri