Puneri Paltan vs Telugu Titans Preview
The much fancied Telugu Titans will kick start the season against Puneri Paltan, the semi-finalist from last season. The game will played at Mumbai instead of Pune, but Puneri Paltans are still likely to get ‘home-crowd-like’ support at Mumbai (unless of course if the game is against U Mumba). The game will be live on 25th at 20:00 hours IST, from from DOME@NSCI SVP Stadium, Mumbai.
Also Read: Puneri Paltan VS Telugu Titans, Live Match Scores & Updates
Pune, led by Manjeet Chiller is one of the most balanced sides in the competition, and with the addition of raiders of the calibre of Sonu Narwal and Nitin Tomar, and defender Joginder Narwal, have a very realistic chance of reaching the last four, and going on to win the competition.
Telugu Titans always seem to have the best squad in the league, and then they do their best impression of the South African cricket team in each of the seasons. The ultra-talented Rahul Chaudhary will once again lead the side, and will aim to put to bed all the talks of them being chokers.
Also Read: Telugu Titans' Rahul Chaudhari: "I am very happy with the squad"
Meraj Sheykh, the Iranian all-rounders who had formed a real eye-catching partnership with his captain will be a huge miss, he contributed to 38 successful raids and 27 successful tackles in 29 matches, and numbers like that will be very difficult to replace.
Puneri Paltan vs Telugu Titans Prediction
Puneri Paltans will no doubt ride on the back of their inspirational captain Manjeet Chiller, who collected a massive 101 points in the last campaign, and his 'lead from the front' captaincy style which has brought his teams so much of success in the last couple of seasons will be the recipe for the Paltans.
Ravinder Pahal is an interesting one, he was dreadful in the last season for the Panthers, but was absolutely scintillating in Season 2, making a mammoth 52 successful tackles. His inclusion has definitely shored up the defence for the Puneri Paltans, and he’s likely to start as the right corner. But, which version of him turns up for the game, remains to be seen.
For the Titans, Rahul Choudhari and Sukesh Hegde will do the bulk of the raiding and it will be important that they hit the ground running. They will also aim to tap in to the knowledge of big name signing Sandeep Narwal, who lifted the title last time around with the Patna Pirates, and will probably help in the raiding department too (admittedly mostly to run the clock down).
The first game of the season is always difficult to call, but I go for the Patna Pirates to carry the momentum from five months ago and get the win.
Puneri Paltan vs Telugu Titans Playing Squads
Puneri Paltan:
Defenders: Ketut Ariana, Gurpreet Singh, Somvir Shekhar, Ravinder Pahal, Joginder Narwal, Khomsan Thongkham, Virender Chhillar;
All-rounders: Parmod Narwal, Preetam Chhillar, Manjeet Chhillar, Dalbir, Deepak Niwas Hooda;
Raider: Ajay Thakur, Sonu Narwal, Jay Bahadur Bohara, Anil Shriram Nimbolkar, Akshay Jadhav;
Telegu Titans:
Defenders: Vinod Kumar, Sandeep Dhuzzdddll;
All-rounders: Jasmer Singh Gulia, Rupesh Tomar, Sandeep Narwal, Mohammad Maghsoudlou, Shashank Wankhede, Aklhaq Hussain, Muhammed Rizwan, Sagar B. Krishna, Vishal Bhardwaj;
Raiders: Vinoth Kumar, K.Prapanjan, Nilesh Salunke, Rahul Chaudhary, Sukesh Hegde, Sombir, Athul MS;
Puneri Paltan vs Telugu Titans Live Match Information
Date: 25/06/2016
Time: 20:00 IST
Venue: DOME@NSCL SVP Stadium, Mumbai
TV Channel: Star Sports 2 (English), Star Sports 3 (Hindi)
Live Stream: http://www.starsports.com/
