Pro Kabaddi 2016 Season 4: Bengal Warriors vs Dabang Delhi Preview: Match Prediction, Time, Venue, Playing Squads & Live Match Telecast info

After a nerve-juggling and heart-breaking loss against the Bengaluru Bulls, the Bengal Warriors will look to score their first victory when they take on Dabang Delhi for match 5 at Mumbai. Dabang Delhi will be playing their first match of Star Sports Pro Kabaddi season 4 and will look to get their campaign to a good start against the strong defensive unit of the Bengal Warriors.

Dabang Delhi will have to play out of their skins this season in order to save the blushes. Over the three seasons until now, Delhi has fallen in positions from where clawing back to the top four has been an improbable task. The graph of Delhi has witnessed a downward curve in terms of their position.

In season 1, Delhi finished in 6th position. Faring worse in season 2, the Dabangs fell to the 7th position under the leadership of star-defender Ravinder Pahal, missing the services of Surjeet Narwal due to injury. In season 3, Delhi competed as though they were alien to the game. Out of the 14 games allotted to them, they managed to gain just victory and ended up at the bottom of the heap.

Having retained the towering presence of Kashiling Adake along with a surprise retention of young raider Selvamani K. Kashiling Adake has been the lone bright spot for Dabang Delhi, having scored more than a three hundred raid points in the 39 matches he has played. This year, not only will he be the top raider, he will be given the additional job of heralding the squad on his shoulders.

Delhi entered the auction looking for a major revamp, and would have emerged out a happy bunch. Deepak Narwal was procured to assist Kashiling Adake in the raiding department, while Prashant Chavan and D. Suresh Kumar add the wealth of experience to the squad. However, the talking point of Delhi’s campaign will be in the form of two crucial men, Bhupender Singh and Meraj Sheykh.

While Bhupender has had a mixed bag of success with U-Mumba, Meraj Sheykh has been a vital element to Telugu Titans success and is a major value addition to the Dabang Delhi. The left corner’s agility and cleverness will surely take off a lot of load from skipper Kashiling Adake’s shoulders.

The Bengal Warriors, on the other hand, will be ruing a lost opportunity to score their first points against the Bengaluru Bulls. Having gained a huge lead into the second half by inflicting an all-out on the Bulls, the Warriors were the favourites to run away with a victory the way their defence was working added to the form of raider Jang Kun Lee.

However, the never-say-die attitude of the Bulls ensured that they were not going to give in without a fight. With Rohit Kumar executing a wonderful raid and Pawan Kumar bringing home one point, Nilesh Shinde’s school-boy error saw the Warriors reduced to two men. After Rohit sent Jang Kun Lee out with a deep hand touch, Nitin Madane walked in for a raid but was thrown onto the mat by the Bulls, and with that all-out won by the match by just one point.

When the Warriors take on Dabang Delhi, it will be a keen battle to witness. While Bengal will look to make a comeback, Delhi will want to spoil Bengal’s party and grab their first win of the season.

Match Prediction

With both teams strong through their defensive units, it will boil down to how well the raiders from both the teams counter the defensive abilities to score points. Kashiling Adake and Deepak Narwal will be the key for Delhi while Iranian Meraj Sheykh will be the X-Factor for Delhi, and his combination with the others defenders will be deciding factor.

Bengal Warriors will need to recoup and start afresh. While Jang Kun Lee was by far their best raider as far as the match against Bengaluru Bulls was concerned, Nitin Madane’s conservative form of raiding might just have hurt the Warriors at the end, and will have to be looked upon.

With both Nilesh Shinde and Girish Maruti Ernak combining well to strangle the Bulls at certain times, Bengal will hope Jang Kun Lee continues his good run, and he will be the X-Factor for Bengal. While Vishal Mane and Surjeet Narwal had a relatively disappointing game, Monu Goyat, the man from Services who made his debut this game and will look to breach the defence of Delhi.

When it comes to guessing a winner, Bengal Warriors might just go ahead of Dabang Delhi given the fact that they might have recognised their mistakes from the previous game and will be looking to make amends to boost their campaign.

Squads

Bengal Warriors:

Raiders: Jang Kun Lee, Mahendra Ganesh Rajput, Surjeet Narwal, Nitin Madane, Ravi Dalal, Shrikant Jadhav, Simon Kibura.

Defenders: Nilesh Shinde (Captain), Girish Ernak, Vishal Mane, Ravi Kumar, Sushil Vijay Bhosle, Amit Singh Chhillar, C.Arun, Chaminda R.S.M, Ravindra Ramesh Kumavat, Suyog Rajapkar, Yogesh Subhash Sawant.