The penultimate day of the Delhi leg in Pro Kabaddi season 4 will see the home team Dabang Delhi take on the Puneri Paltan in a do-or-die clash for both teams. The Dabangs from Delhi fought tooth and nail till the last second against the defending champions, Patna Pirates, but lost the match in the buzzer raid. The Meraj Sheykh led team have to win their last two matches against the Puneri Paltan and U Mumba by a big margin to have any chance of reaching the knockouts.
After topping the table in the first phase of season 4, Puneri Paltans have lost 4 matches on the trot. With 4 wins and 6 losses, the Paltan are currently sitting fifth in the league with 32 points. To seal a place in the playoffs, the season 3 semi-finalist have to win their last two matches.
Match Prediction
All eyes will be on the Iranian Meraj Sheykh in today’s match. With 8 raid points and 3 tackle points, the all-round Meraj went after Patna’s defence with all guns blazing in the second half and moreover, he bailed the team out on six occasions when they were on the verge of suffering an all-out. The Dabangs skipper will look to carry his impressive run in today’s do-or-die match against Puneri Paltan.
Despite failing to break the defence in the buzzer raid of the match, Kashiling Adake has been stupendous for the Dabangs in the home leg with 22 raid points. The duo of Kashiling and Selvamani have to come good against Pune’s defensive mainstay Manjeet Chhillar.
With just 2 tackle points, Delhi’s defensive beast Sachin Shingade failed to stop the Patna attack. Shingade has to spend more minutes on the mat in today’s match to overcome the attacking threat of the Puneri Paltan. The star defender had a super five against Manjeet Chhillar’s men in the previous clash and looks set to trouble Deepak Niwas Hudda and Ajay Thakur in today’s match.
The cornerstones of Delhi’s defence, Prashant Chavan and Anil Kumar, should ably support Sachin Shingade in today’s match.
In the absence of Manjeet Chhillar, Pune’s defence haven’t been firing with both Ravindra Pahal and Joginder Narwal capitulating to Pardeep Narwal’s attacking display in the last match. After starting the season on a bright note, the corner defenders are struggling to find form and it’s high time for the duo to put a stellar performance against Delhi in today’s encounter.
Without any doubt, Meeraj Sheykh and Kashiling Adake will target the corner defenders in today’s match.
With 75 raid points to his name, Deepak Niwas Hudda looks to carry his impeccable form. The former Titans ‘ all-rounder effort played a huge role in deciding the outcome of the match against Dabangs in the previous clash. Ajay Thakur should complement Deepak Hudda to overcome the dangerous Delhi defence lead by Sachin Shingade. Sonu Narwal’s poor run of form with just 30 raid points is a big concern for Pune.
After missing the last two games due to a shoulder injury, Manjeet Chhillar’s availability in today’s crunch tie is still unknown.
The head to head stands 3-3 heading into today’s battle. Delhi have never defeated Pune since the narrow one-point win at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in season 2.
It’s an interesting battle, to day the least but we go with Dabang Delhi to clinch a narrow win over Manjeet Chhillar’s men in today’s match.
Squads
Dabang Delhi
Defenders: Ram Kumar Sah, Prashant Chavan, D.Gopu, D.Suresh Kumar, Sachin Shingade
All-rounders: Bhupender Singh, Meraj Sheykh, Hadi Tajik, Phonchoo Tin, Manjeet
Raiders: Kashiling Adake, Selvamani K, Prashant Kumar Rai, Deepak Narwal, Umesh Mhatre, Sanket Chavan, Vikash Khandola
Puneri Paltan
Defenders: I 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
Telugu Titans vs Jaipur Pink Panthers Live Match Information
Date: 26/07/2016
Time: 21:00 IST
Venue: Thyagaraj Sports Complex, Delhi
TV Channels: Star Sports 2/Star Sports 2 HD (English), Star Sports 3/Star Sports 3 HD (Hindi)
Live stream: StarSports.com
