Pro Kabaddi 2016, Season 4: Bengaluru Bulls vs Patna Pirates Preview: Match Prediction, Time, Venue, Playing Squads & Live Match Telecast info

The home team Bengaluru Bulls will take on the defending champions Patna Pirates in a Pro Kabaddi Season 4 clash at the Sree Kanteerava indoor Stadium in Bengaluru on Thursday. The Bulls endured a fourth straight loss of the season when they were overpowered by the Pink Panthers yesterday.

With 3 wins and 5 losses, the season 2 finalist are yet to register a win in front of their rapturous home fans, as they look to overcome the Patna threat in today’s encounter to keep their semi-finals hope alive.

On the other hand, the defending champions Patna Pirates look to move to the top of the table by defeating the inconsistent Bulls. After starting the season on the bright note, the Pirates endured a humiliating defeat in the hands of Dabang Delhi, before outclassed by the Jaipur Pink Panthers on Sunday.

With 5 wins and 2 losses, the season 3 champions sit third with 26 points.

Match Prediction

The over-reliance on Rohit Kumar in the attack continues to hamper the Bengaluru set-up. The destructive raider had a bad game against the Pink Panthers, with 5 raid points and the Bengaluru attack failed miserably. The second and third raiders in the team need to fire in today’s match to overcome the strong shielded Patna defence.

Rohit Kumar will come up against his old team in today’s encounter and the 26-year-old faces an uphill battle against Fazel Atrachali and Dharmaraj Cheralathan.

The defence of the Bulls have enough grit and determination to compensate the vulnerable looking attack, but they are unable to get that elusive win. Mohit Chillar and Surender Nada have been solid on the corners, but the cover defence looks helpless.

The compact Bengaluru defence lead by Surender Nada should come up with a colossal plan to stop the leading raider in season 4 Pardeep Narwal.

Patna Pirates, on the other hand, rely a lot on the young Pardeep Narwal to come good against the best defence in season 4. The 19-year- old has been rock solid for the Pirates in leading the attack with 64 raid points in 7 matches. The leading raider, who spent more than 25 minutes off the mat against the Dabangs, faces a stern test against the right corner defender Mohit Chillar.

Rajesh Mondal’s poor form with no raid points against Delhi and Jaipur affected Patna’s attack and moreover, it puts added pressure on Pardeep Narwal to break the defence in do-or-die situations. Rajesh needs to uplift his level, when he comes up against his old counterparts in today’s crunch tie.

The defensive trio of Dharmaraj Cheralathan, Fazel Atrachali and Bajirao Hodage could be effective in today's match after two back to back defeats. The half-hearted tackles by Dharamraj Cheralathan against Dabang Delhi and Pink Panthers settled the match in favour of the opposition. The 41-year-old will look to counter Rohit Kumar to make the Bulls suffer an all-out instantly.

The head to head stands 5-2 in favour of the defending champions and moreover, the home team is undergoing a losing streak of 4 matches against the Pirates. Therefore it’s time to rewrite the script in front of the home fans.

The fans would be on the edge of their seat to witness the battle between the best attack in Pro Kabaddi go against the best defence. The Bengaluru defence was completely taken out by Pardeep Narwal, when these two teams met earlier. It’s high time for the Bengaluru defenders to sought out the issues and come up with a stellar performance in today’s mouth-watering contest.

It’s a very difficult call to make, but the attacking instincts of Patna Pirates hold the cutting edge against Bengaluru’s solid defence.

Squads

Bengaluru Bulls

Defenders: Ashish Sangwan, Jeeva Gopal, Manoj Kumar, Mohit Chhillar, Surendar Nada, Rahul Kumar, Ravinder Kumar, Nicolas George Mottram

All-rounder: Sanjay Shrestha

Raider: Pawan Kumar, Sinotharan Kanesharajah, Pawan Kumar, Deepak Kumar Dahiya, Amit Rathi, Yogesh Hooda, Rohit Baliyan, Sumit Singh, Ajay Singh, Harish Naik