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The home side, Bengal Warriors take on the Patna Pirates in a Zone B clash of PKL 2018 at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Indoor Stadium in Kolkata today, Saturday at 9 pm IST.
The Warriors are coming off a 27-24 victory over the Tamil Thalaivas in yesterday's encounter.
Maninder Singh, the Warriors lead raider, lacked support from his fellow raiders which resulted in quite a few close defeats for them. But, now with the coming-back-to form of Jang Kun Lee (12 points), the raiding of the Warriors looks strong enough to take on any opposition.
Surjeet Singh has had a quiet season so far, he is currently tied 20th on the tackle points list (he had the second highest tackle points in the last season) with 39 tackle points in 17 matches with an average of just 2.29 tackles per match. His form has largely defined the performance of the Warriors' defence, and he needs to get his act together before the playoffs to bolster their chances of making it to the finals this season.
The Pirates, on the other hand, are coming off a 40-40 tie against the Bengaluru Bulls and are on a 3-match winless streak. They need to win one of their remaining two encounters to maintain their 100% record of making it to the playoffs of each season of PKL.
Their defence has been in tatters since the commencement of this season, and there has been no significant improvement since then. Jaideep, who was the top defender for the Pirates in the last season, too has struggled for form and the lack of support from the other defenders has only made matters worse.
The two sides, Bengal Warriors and Patna Pirates, have faced each other twice in the season so far, Match 43 and Match 56, and on both the occasions the Pirates have come out on top with a 29-27 and a 50-30 win respectively.
Key Battles to keep an eye on
#1 Pardeep Narwal (left raider) vs Baldev Singh (right corner)
#2 Maninder Singh (right raider) vs Jaideep (left corner)
Probable playing 7
Bengal Warriors: Ran Singh (c), Maninder Singh, Jang Kun Lee, Bhupinder Singh, Vijin Thangadurai, Surjeet Singh, and Baldev Singh
Patna Pirates: Pardeep Narwal (c), Manjeet, Vikas Jaglan, Vijay, Manish, Vikas Kale, and Jaideep
When and where to watch: 21:00 IST on the Star Sports network and on digital streaming platform Hotstar.
Catch the latest updates of the Pro Kabaddi Points Table here at Sportskeeda.
