PKL 9: Bengaluru Bulls to play Tamil Thalaivas

The hosts are ranked seventh in the league table currently.

After a string of close results, Tamil Thalaivas finally win the first match of PKL season 9 defeating Patna Pirates by a one-point margin. The southern side was trailing by seven points with less than five minutes left in the second half but came back strong getting the all-out points and eventually winning the match.

Bengaluru Bulls after winning the first two encounters have now lost the next two matches putting them out of the playoff position and are currently ranked seventh. The team lost the last match to UP Yoddha but mustered a point loss by a seven-point deficit.

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(c), Saurabh Nandal, Mayur Kadam, Sudhakar Krishant, Rohit Kumar, Vinod Naik, Aman, Rajnesh, Yash Hooda

Tamil Thalaivas

Raiders: Pawan Sehrawat, Ajinkya Ashok Pawar, Himanshu, Jatin, Himanshu

All-Rounders: Thanushan Laxmamohan, Visvanath V, K Abhimanyu

Defenders: Sagar, Sahil, M Abishek, Mohit, Himanshu, Ashish, Md Arif Rabbani, Arpit Saroha, Ankit

Head to Head

Bengaluru Bulls and Tamil Thalaivas have met each other in 10 matches in the Pro Kabaddi League. Out of these 10 games, Bengaluru Bulls have won 8 whereas Tamil Thalaivas have come out victorious on the other two occasions.

Player to watch

Himanshu put up an excellent performance against Patna Pirates in the last match after coming in as a substitute. He helped Tamil Thalaivas to achieve the all-out twice in the second half adding four valuable points. Himanshu received good support from Narender who scored nine points. 

Bharat has started the season scoring consistently in all the matches and already has experience playing with the Bengaluru Bulls franchise before. Bharat can look to put in more raids along with primary raider Vikash Kandola as the latter has been performing in all four matches. 

Key to Success

The raiding department of Tamil Thalaivas clicked in the last encounter and showed good intent to produce a result which was lacking in the first three matches. “Himanshus” has been the go-to player in the absence of Paean Sehrawat and have executed their role to perfection. If Ajinkya Pawar can add a few more points then the team can reduce the pressure on the young raiders.

Bengaluru Bulls have a good solid defence with the two best defenders Saurabh Nandal and Mahendar Singh. Mahendra Singh has looked topsy-turvy putting in many unsuccessful tackles of the problem he had in the past too. This season being the captain he needs to reduce the unsuccessful tackle rate and look to score consistently.

Did you know

Saurabh Nandal is 13 points shy of getting to the 150 tackle points mark. Overall Saurabh has 138 points with one point coming from raiding and 137 from tackles.

Broadcast - PKL 9

Time - 08:30 PM

Streaming - Star Sports / Disney + Hotstar