PKL 9: U Mumba, Bengal Warriors will fight for the top six spot

Guman Singh will look to change the fortunes for his side.

U Mumba in the absence of captain Surinder Singh has not looked good in defence losing the last encounter to Tamil Thalaivas by a huge margin of 14 points (20-34). U Mumba used to play with five defenders and two raiders but it doesn't seem to work now with the inefficiency shown by their defenders. 

Bengal Warriors won the last encounter against Bengaluru Bulls (41-38) after trailing in the last five minutes. Shrikanth Jadhav put pressure on the opposition defenders scoring points on every raid in the fag end with Maninder Singh scoring the 11th super 10 of season 9. Bengal Warriors need to win almost all the remaining matches to qualify for the playoffs.

Team News

Bengal Warriors

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

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

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

U Mumba

Raiders: Guman Singh, Ashish, Heidarali Ekrami, Jai Bhagwan Ankush, Kamlesh, Shivam, Pranay Rane, Sachin, Rupesh

Defenders: Rinku, Surinder Singh, Harendra Kumar, Shivansh Thakur, Prince, Kiran Magar, Rahul, Satywan, Mohit

All-Rounder: Gholamabbas Korouki

Head to Head

U Mumba and Bengal Warriors have faced 17 other times in the Pro Kabaddi League out of which Bengal Warriors have won four matches whereas U Mumba has come out victorious on 12 occasions with one match ending in a tie.

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Guman Singh the primary raider could only score four points against Tamil Thalaivas with U Mumba playing majorly for the do-or-die situation. This did not help Guman’s cause slowing down the entire match. Guman needs to find ways in scoring quick points against Bengal Warriors with the corner positions not as stable as the previous opposition. 

Girish Maruthi Ernak is back to business scoring his first high 5 after a dismal show in the Pune leg. With the return of Girish, the defence has the combination of both youth and experience which shall be an added advantage. Ernak will be up against Guman Singh who is the only reliable raider for U Mumba.

Key to Success

U Mumba’s main weapon has been their defence and to date have the most number of tackle points (team category). But with the injury to Surinder Singh, the defence has not looked solid with Rinku putting in a good effort. The other defender like Harendra Kumar needs to step up for U Mumba to beat the strong Bengal Warriors raiding unit. 

Bengal Warriors' raiding unit has come out well in the last encounter against Bengaluru Bulls but Deepak Niwas Hooda needs to find the groove with only a few matches left in the league stages. The defence has been good in patches and with the return of Girish back to form it should get stronger against U Mumba who have only few quality raiders.

Did you know

Maninder Singh from Bengal Warriors is nine points short of reaching the 1200 points in the Pro Kabaddi League

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