PKL 9: In-form Puneri Paltan to face hurt Bengal Warriors

The hosts are coming into the game after winning their previous two encounters.

Puneri Paltan after a string of losses in the opening encounters is back to form winning the last two encounters. The team from Pune will face Bengal Warriors in Match 31 of PKL 9. The presence of two Iranians Fazel Athrachali and Mohammed Nabibaksh has helped the defence section get back to form also helping the youngsters to learn from them. Puneri were placed 12th a few days ago but currently are back in the top 6.

Bengal Warriors lost their previous encounter by a 13-point-margin against Jaipur Pink Panthers. Before their previous encounter, Bengal Warriors were on a three-match winning streak with the last one being an off-colour encounter. Maninder Singh could score only two raid points.

Team News

Puneri Paltan

Raiders: Aslam Inamdar, Mohit Goyat, Pankaj Mohite, Akash Shinde, Shubham Shelke, Aditya Shinde.

All-Rounders: Mohammad Nabibakhsh (overseas player), Balasaheb Jadhav, Govind Gurjar

Defenders: Sanket Sawant, Fazel Atrachali, Abinesh Nadarajan, Sombir, D Mahindra Prasad, Badal Singh, Alankar Patil, Rakesh Ram, Harsh Lad

Bengal Warriors

Raiders: Maninder Singh, Shrikant Jadhav, Akash Pikalmunde, Suyog Gaikar, R Guhan, Parshant Kumar, Aslam Thambi.

All-Rounders: Deepak Hooda, Ashish Sangwan, Vinod Kumar, Ajinkya Kapre, Rohit, Manoj Gowda, Balaji D

Defenders: Girish Maruti Ernak,  Surender Nada, Amit Sheoran, Parveen Satpal, Shubham Shinde, Sakthivel R, Soleiman Pahlevani, Vaibhav Garje

Head to Head

Bengal Warriors and Puneri Paltan have faced each other in 16 matches in the Pro Kabaddi League out of which, Bengal Warriors have won 8 whereas Puneri Paltan has come out victorious on 7 occasions with a match ending in a tie.

Player to watch

Deepak Niwas Hooda after his heroics in the second match hasn't scored consistently being one of the most experienced all-rounders in PKL history. He can turn out to be a game-changer for Bengal Warriors if he scores consistently as there are not many players of his kind (all-rounder) available in the PKL 9.

Mohammad Nabibaksh

In the two matches Nabibaksh has played so far he has scored all the points in the defence section. In the last match against U Mumba, he scored four tackle points but couldn't score a single raid point. Nabibaksh needs to get back to his season 6 form when scored both raid and tackle points simultaneously. 

Key to Success

The trio of Maninder Singh, Shrikanth Jadhav, and Deepak Hooda have not fired simultaneously in a single encounter. Maninder could score only two points in the last match hurting the Bengal team very badly with Jadhav scoring the highest with six raid points against Jaipur Pink Panthers. 

The defence for Puneri Paltan has looked rock solid but apart from Aslam Inamdar, the raiders have not scored consistently apart from Mohit Goyat. In the last match, Aslam could only score five raid points but went on to win against Telugu Titans by a single point. Pankaj Mohite needs to raid more to get good game time and experience.

Did you know

Mohammed Nabibaksh is close to getting to the 300 points mark (raiding+defence) scoring 181 raid points and 116 tackle points overall.

Broadcast - PKL 9

Time - 08:30 PM

Streaming - Star Sports / Disney + Hotstar