PKL 9: Naveen Kumar's Dabang Delhi search for consistency against in-form UP Yoddhas

Delhi edged the Yoddhas by a 44-42 margin when they met earlier this season.

Dabang Delhi KC face UP Yoddhas in the second match of a double header Wednesday. Delhi lost by a 25-point margin against Jaipur Pink Panthers in the last encounter (57-32) which is one of their worst defeats in the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) history. Vijay Malik played the first match of PKL season 9 and scored a Super 10. He continued in a similar fashion to where he left from the last season.

UP Yoddhas won a good battle against Telugu Titans (41-30). Surinder Gill and Sumit scored Super 10 and high-five respectively in a one-sided battle. A win against Dabang Delhi KC will make them move ahead in the points table and occupy a place in the top four.

Team News

Dabang Delhi KC

Raiders: Naveen Kumar, Manjeet, Ashu Malik, Ashish Narwal, Suraj Panwar

Defenders: Ravi Kumar, Sandeep Dhull, Amit Hooda, Vishal, Anil Kumar, Monu, Dipak, Krishan, Vinay Kumar, Vijay, Mohammad Liton Ali, Aakash

All-rounders: Vijay, Tejas Patil, Reza Katoulinezhad

UP Yoddhas

Raiders: Pardeep Narwal, Surender Gill, Nitin Tomar, Anil Kumar, Mahipal, Rohit Tomar, Aman, Durgesh Kumar, Rathan K, Gulveer Singh

All-Rounders: Gurdeep, Nehal Desai, Nitin Panwar

Defenders: Nitesh Kumar, Sumit, Ashu Singh, Shubham Kumar, Abozar Mohajermighani, Babu M, Jaideep

Head-to-Head

Dabang Delhi KC and UP Yoddhas have faced each other eight times in the Pro Kabaddi League. Dabang Delhi KC have won three matches, whereas UP Yoddhas has come out victorious on five occasions.

Player to watch 

Vijay Malik will be the player to watch out for after making an excellent comeback from injury. In the previous season, he has been a good all-rounder scoring points in the defence as well. With Dabang Delhi’s defensive unit showing no signs of improvement, it is time for Vijay to take over and motivate them who seem to have lost all their confidence.

Surender Gill and Pardeep Narwal will look to exploit Dabang Delhi’s defence. All the defenders scored more unsuccessful tackles than the total points they scored in the last encounter against Jaipur. UP Yoddhas should make use of this opportunity and look to attack the cover defenders who have been more aggressive and have lost points.

Key to Sucess

The corner duo of Sumit and Nitesh Kumar have to be on their throughout the match with all three raiders from Dabang Delhi KC ( Ashu, Vijay and Naveen) in great form. Naveen could only score five raid points in the last match but has the tendency to bounce back. The UP defenders should look to attack Naveen more.

The defenders have been in poor form for the majority of the season and shall look to bounce back against a strong UP Yoddha raiding unit. They shall look to tackle when necessary rather than indulging in all the tackles.

Did you Know?

Dabang Delhi KC takes the top spot in the most number of successful raids (244) in Pro Kabaddi season 9 to date.

Broadcast

Time - 08:30 PM

Streaming - Star Sports / Disney + Hotstar