PKL 9: Fazel Atrachali's Puneri Paltan eye top spot against struggling Haryana Steelers

The Paltans are just two points off the top spot.

Haryana Steelers and Puneri Paltan will play the first match of the Hyderabad leg in Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) season 9. The last time both the teams met in PKL 9, the match ended in a tie. Haryana Steelers did not perform well in the Pune leg as compared to the Bengaluru one. Manjeet Dahiya has been the bright spot in the raiding department scoring Super 10s consistently in the last few encounters along with Jaideep Dahiya in defence.

Puneri Paltan, on the other hand, are just two points away from regaining back the top spot from Bengaluru Bulls. The Paltans made good use of their home support winning four, apart from two defeats and a tie in seven matches. The raiding trio of Akash Shinde, Mohit Goyat, and Aslam Inamdar were the bright spots.

Team News

Puneri Paltan

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

All-Rounders: Mohammad Nabibakhsh, Balasaheb Jadhav, Govind Gurjar

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

Haryana Steelers

Raiders: Prapanjan, Rakesh Narwal, Manjeet, Vinay, Mohammad Mahalli, Lovepreet Singh, Sushil, Meetu, Manish Gulia.

Defenders: Joginder Narwal, Jaideep, Mohit, Ankit, Monu, Naveen, Harsh, Sunny, Amirhossein Bastami.

All-Rounder: Nitin Rawal

Head-to-Head

Haryana Steelers and Puneri Paltan have faced each other 11 times in the Pro Kabaddi League. The Haryana Steelers have won four matches, whereas Puneri Paltan has come out victorious on six occasions. One match ended in a tie.

Player to watch

Aslam Inamdar is the player to watch out for. He has recently been scoring points in both the raiding and defence sections. In the last encounter against Bengal Warriors, Aslam scored two tackle points and seven raid points. Puneri Paltan now has the luxury of playing with three raiders instead of two with Aslam taking care of the defensive section too which can prove to be vital in the playoff stages.

Manjeet Dahiya will be up against the captain of Puneri Paltan Fazel Athrachali. The primary raider has been the saviour for Haryana Steelers with Meetu not living up to the expectations. Meetu in the initial stages was performing pretty well, but has lost form in the past few matches hurting Haryana badly.

Key to Success

Joginder Narwal after a brief time has made his presence felt on the mat in the last encounter scoring three tackle points. This should provide Joginder much confidence as he is set to take on the mighty raiding trio of Aslam, Mohit, and Akash Shinde. Jaideep Dahiya along with Joginder shall be the ones to look for in the defence of Haryana’s success. 

Fazel Athrachali will need to step up and keep Manjeet Dahiya out of the mat for the majority of the match which will enable Puneri Paltan to take the early lead and also take advantage of the match. 

Did you know?

K.Prapanjan of Haryana Steelers will be playing his 100th match in the Pro Kabaddi League against Puneri Paltan.

Broadcast

Time - 07:30 PM

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