Preview: Bengal Warriors and Patna Pirates will square off in Chennai on Thursday. It promises to be an exciting contest as it features three top-scoring raiders. Bengal Warriors come into this match on the back of a four-match unbeaten streak but Patna Pirates will be hungry for a win to move closer to the top half of the season standings.
After being led by skipper Maninder Singh in attack early in the season, Warriors now have raider K Prapanjan taking up lead raider responsibilities as he scored a Super 10 in the previous match against Dabang Delhi. He now has 51 raid points from 8 matches and is ninth in the list of highest scoring raiders in the season, just seven shy of Maninder, who is in the sixth position. Bengal Warriors are, thus, the only team with more than one raider in the list of top ten raiders of the season so far. The defensive responsibilities are ably shared between Baldev Singh, Rinku Narwal and Jeeva Kumar. The team’s ability to finish close games in their favour is also a huge asset for them.
Patna Pirates have been struggling to find consistent form in this Season and had to face a defeat against U Mumba after an emphatic 21-point win against UP Yoddha. But Mohammad Maghsoudlou found his footing again and provided able support to Pardeep Narwal in the team’s previous match, which lends the team a much better overall balance. However, a lot will depend on how well the ‘Record-Breaker’ can do on the day as he is the team’s most successful raider so far and has the ability to score big and turn games around single-handedly. Their defence is led by Jaideep, who sits joint-fourth in the list of the season’s best defenders with 26 tackle points to his name. However, Hadi Oshtorak and recently Ravinder, have provided him good support in defence. The team will want a win against Bengal Warriors to rise above the bottom position in the Season 7 rankings.
Content courtesy: Pro Kabaddi
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