PKL 9: Puneri Paltan and Tamil Thalaivas will play the reverse fixture

The first game ended with the home team on the winning side.

The match between Puneri Paltan and Tamil Thalaivas will be a reverse fixture after two days in PKL 9. Puneri Paltan lost a close encounter (34-35) after a miscalculation by captain Fazel Athrachali costing them the match. Aslam Inamdar after missing out on a few games due to an injury came back strongly scoring a super 10 and replacing in form Akash Shinde.

Tamil Thalaivas are on a five-match unbeaten streak winning four matches along with one tied match. Narender Kandola was kept on the bench for more than 12 minutes but still went on to score a super 10 after a poor outing against Telugu Titans. Tamil Thalaivas are currently placed inside the playoffs spot and can move to the top 2 if they beat Puneri Paltan again in PKL 9.

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, Harsh Lad

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

Tamil Thalaivas and Puneri Paltan have faced each other seven times in the Pro Kabaddi League out of which, Tamil Thalaivas have won three matches whereas Puneri Paltan has come out victorious on two occasions with two matches ending in a tie.

Player to watch

Ajinkya Pawar after the start of the Pune leg of PKL 9 has played the secondary raider role to perfection scoring points regularly. Apart from scoring points in raiding, he has shown intent in the defence section as well as tackling Mohit Goyat in the last encounter. Ajinkya possesses a good thigh hold which is difficult for the raiders to escape.

Sombir in the left corner position will play the most important role for Puneri Paltan to win the reverse fixture. Both the main raiders from Tamil Thalaivas (Narender Kandola and Ajinkya Pawar) are left raiders and will look to score points in the left flank itself. This threat shall be nullified by Sombir.

Key to Success

The cover along with the left corner position will be targeted by the Puneri Paltan attack of Aslam Inamdar and Mohit Goyat. Sahil Gulia has not had a good time on the mat for the past few games and is being targeted by the raiders. On the other side, the cover combo of Mohit and Abhishek is putting in unnecessary dashes which should be avoided.

If the trio of Akash Shinde, Pankaj Mohite, and Aslam Inamdar remove Sagar from the attack then it will become easier for Puneri Paltan to score points quickly and take the crucial lead. On the other side, Fazel Athrachali needs to find ways in tackling Narender and Ajinkya Pawar who remained quiet in the last match and could score only one tackle point.

Did you know

Fazel Athrachali is three tackle points away from reaching the 400 points mark in the Pro Kabaddi League.

Broadcast - PKL 9

Time - 08:30 PM

Streaming - Star Sports / Disney + Hotstar