PKL 9: Comeback kings Bengaluru Bulls to play Patna Pirates

The team from the north registered their first win of the season against Dabang Delhi.

Patna Pirates won their first game of PKL season 9 defeating the heavyweights and reigning champions Dababng Delhi KC in a close contest. Dabang Delhi was unbeaten in their first five matches but Patna broke the run and went on to win their first match. Rohit Gulia and Sachin were the stars scoring 11 and 9 points respectively. Patna Pirates will play Bengaluru Bulls in their next PKL 9 game.

Bengaluru Bulls won the last match against U Mumba after trailing by eight points at one point  (18-25) but went on to dominate from there on to win comfortably by a ten-point margin (42-32). Bharat was once again the star performer for Bengaluru Bulls scoring 16 raid points. Both Patna and Bengaluru will be high on confidence going into tomorrow’s match.  

Team News

Bengaluru Bulls

Raiders: Vikash Kandola, More G B, Lala Mohar Yadav, Neeraj Narwal, Harmanjit Singh, Bharat, Nageshor Tharu

All-Rounders: Sachin Narwal, Rahul Khatik

Defenders: Mahender Singh, Saurabh Nandal, Mayur Kadam, Sudhakar Krishant, Rohit Kumar, Vinod Naik, Aman, Rajnesh, Yash Hooda

Patna Pirates

Raiders: Sachin, Monu, Anand Tomar, Sushil Gulia, Vishwas S, Rohit, Ranjit Naik, Anuj Kumar

All-Rounder: Rohit Gulia, Sajin C, Sager Kumar, Abdul Insamam, Mohammadreza Chiyaneh, Daniel Odhiambo

Defenders: Neeraj Kumar, Sunil, Thiyagarajan Yuvaraj, Manish, Shivam Chaudhary, Naveen Sharma

Head to Head

Bengaluru Bulls and Patna Pirates have faced each other 19 times in the Pro Kabaddi League out of which, Bengaluru Bulls have won 5 whereas Patna Pirates have come out victorious on 12 occasions with two matches ending in a tie.

Player to watch

Rohit Gulia is turning out to be a star for Patna Pirates playing a crucial role in the raiding department. He has taken the mantle of primary raider from Sachin considering his performances in the last few games. Rohit has scored successive super 10s and has 47 raid points in six matches placing him in the top 10 of the raiding table.

Bharat has been the standout performer for Bengaluru Bulls having scored multiple super 10s and is ahead of Vikash Kandola in the raiding points chart. Randhir Singh Sehrawat chose to retain Bharat from the last season and the move is paying good returns with the youngsters scoring points consistently. 

Key to Success

Like the last encounter against Dabang Delhi KC, the Patna Pirates raiding duo of Rohit Gulia and Sachin need to operate well simultaneously having already lost four matches in the first six encounters. With the matches coming thick and fast the duo need to remain consistent. Chiyaneah has looked good only in patches and his performance isn't the same as the last season. The experienced corner defender needs to step up along with the others like Sajin who too was retained from the last season.

Mahender Singh and Saurabh Nandal were good at the start of the league but their performance has gone down match by match. Mahender Singh the cover specialist in particular is not having a good time on the mat. In the last game against U Mumba, he could score only a single tackle point. The defence needs to work better and combine to score tackle points. 

Did you know

Rohit Gulia is 11 points short of getting to the 350 raid points mark. Rohit also has 18 tackle points overall in the Pro Kabaddi League.

Broadcast - PKL 9

Time - 07:30 PM

Streaming - Star Sports / Disney + Hotstar