PKL 9: Tamil Thalaivas will look to confirm their playoff spot against UP Yoddhas

Tamil are currently fifth in the table.

Tamil Thalaivas after the loss to Jaipur Pink Panthers has come back strongly even in the absence of in-form defender Sagar Rathee. Thalaivas came out victoriuos against their southern rivals Telugu Titans (24-52) and the win has also helped them increase the score difference by a good margin.

UP Yoddhas lost the last encounter against Bengaluru Bulls(35-38) but made a great comeback at the fag end of the match scoring ten points in the last three minutes. Pradeep Narwal scored his 10th super 10 of the season but the inefficiency of defence let the team down.

Team News

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, Sandeep Narwal.

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

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

UP Yoddhas and Tamil Thalaivas have faced each other 11 times in the Pro Kabaddi League out of which, Tamil Thalaivas have won three times and UP Yodhhas have won come out victorious on five occasions with three games ending in a tie.

Player to watch

Arpit Saroha has been donning the right corner position in the absence of the injured Sagar and has done a decent job so far. He will now be up against “record breaker” Pardeep Narwal and his deputy in raiding Rohit Tomar who has looked good in the past few matches. Arpit needs to evade the threat and try not to give bonus points.

Pardeep Narwal shall look to target the weakness of Tamil Thalaivas which is the left corner and left cover position. Abhishek M operates in both the cover positions and Pardeep should look to target the inconsistent cover defender.

Key to Success

Nitesh Kumar shall be the saviour for UP Yoddhas with both Narender Kandola and Ajinkya Pawar in good form. The Nitesh-Sumit combo has not come well this season but the likes of Gurdeep can step in and put in some good tackles. Tamil Thalaivas on the other hand pretty much has all their bases covered except for the inexperience in the left corner and out-of-form Abhishek M.

Did you know?

Sumit from UP Yoddhas is six points short of reaching the 200 points mark in the Pro Kabaddi League.

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