The Puneri Paltan thrashed U Mumba by a huge margin of 41-19 at the sold out SVP stadium in Mumbai on Sunday. This is the first time in the Pro Kabaddi history that the Paltan came out successful in the Maharastra Derby. There are many positives to take for the Manjeet Chhillar led Pune team who looked strong and vigorous from the beginning of the match with some remarkable raids and powerful defensive tackles.
The Patna Pirates after a breathtaking season 3, kick off their title defence on Monday. With no Sandeep Narwal and Rohit Kumar in their current set-up, the team rely a lot on their star raider Pardeep Narwal. The 19-year-old is one of the two players to be retained along with Rajesh Mondal. The experienced Dharmaraj Cheralathan will lead the Patna side and lot of expectations were surrounded on the Iranian defender Fazel Atrachali.
Patna has been a second consistent team in the Pro Kabaddi league. They had a promising first season under the leadership of Rakesh Kumar (finished 4th) and fought till the very end in the second season (finished 5th) before defeating the solid Mumbai team in the finals of Season 3.
Match Prediction
Ajay Thakur, one of the best raiders from India was been phenomenal against U Mumba with three super raids The rusty Mumbai defence didn’t have any clue on how to stop the 30-year-old who looked unstoppable from the beginning. The Himachal Pradesh-born raider has 16 raid points including three super raids. Due to Ajay’s heroics, the 2015 champions suffered an all out on two occasions inside 10 minutes.
The Pirates defenders, comprising of Dharmaraj Cheralathan, Fazel Atrachali and Rajesh Mondal, should come up with a great plan to stop the former Bengaluru raider.
Joginder Narwal, the former Bengaluru defender was stupendous on the left corner and stopped both Anup Kumar and Rishank Devadiga with some strong ankle holds. Ravinder Pahal who was less impressive last time is gradually rediscovering his touch.
The defending champions will be looking to break Pune’s momentum when they square off against each other on Monday. The young Pardeep Narwal astonished everyone with 116 raid points in season 3. Pardeep’s athletic raids with strong tricks and turns made life difficult for the defenders in the last season. He is surely the player to watch out for in Patna’s title defence.
The former Titans defender Dharmaraj Cheralathan was less effective in his previous stint in the Yellow Jersey. He also struggled against pacy raiders in season 3 and it will be interesting to see his approach against Ajay Thakur who mostly attacks the right corner.
The team hopes that Fazel Atrachali, the former U Mumba defender could replace Sandeep Narwal in the defence. Rajesh Mondal who looked very silent for most of the season 3 encounters, suddenly emerged as a prolific player in the finals against Mumbai.
There is some speculation inside the Patna camp that the fans aren’t pleased with the recently concluded Star Sports Pro Kabaddi auctions as the team looks in a new shape compared to the last season. Therefore, the Pirates are on the verge of a new era and it’s very interesting to see whether the change can bring back the past laurels to the team.
The Paltan who is viewed as strong title contenders never defeated the Pirates in any of the three seasons. They rewrote the script against U Mumba by handing them the biggest defeat in U Mumba’s 3 year Kabaddi reign. It’s an interesting battle, to say the least, but the Paltan, who gathered momentum by defeating Mumbai, should have the edge in this game.
Squads
Puneri Paltans
Defenders: Ketut Ariana, Gurpreet Singh, Somvir Shekhar, Ravinder Pahal, Joginder Narwal, Khomsan Thongkham, Virender Chhillar;
All-rounder: Parmod Narwal, Preetam Chhillar, Manjeet Chhillar, Dalbir, Deepak Niwas Hooda;
Raider: Ajay Thakur, Sonu Narwal, Jay Bahadur Bohara, Anil Shriram Nimbolkar, Akshay Jadhav.
Patna Pirates
Defenders: Dharmraj Cheralathan, Bajirao Hodage, Deepak Dhull, Vijin Thangadurai, Fazel Atrachali, Abolfazel Maghsodlo, Sunny, Sunil Kumar, Anil Kumar .
All-rounder: Sanjay Kumar, Hadi Oshtorak, Kuldeep Singh .
Raider: Mahesh Goud, Pardeep Narwal, Rajesh Mondal, Vinoth Paulyas, Surjeet Singh .
Puneri Paltan vs Patna Pirates Live Match Information
Date: 27/06/2016
Time: 21:00 IST
Venue: DOME@NSCL SVP Stadium, Mumbai
TV Channel: Star Sports 2 (English), Star Sports 3 (Hindi)
Live Stream: http://www.starsports.com/
