LIVE PKL 2019 | Semi Final 1 – Dabang Delhi vs Bengaluru Bulls
PKL
In the first semi-final, Dabang Delhi KC will take on defending champions Bengaluru Bulls in Ahmedabad today. Powered by Naveen Kumar's amazing raiding performance in the season, Delhi got a direct entry into the semis while the Bulls defeated UP Yoddha in the first eliminator to get here.
Dabang Delhi has remained on top of the points table for most of the league stage and were able to finish there as well because of a tie in their last match against U Mumba. Though they were complacent in the second half and allowed the other team to make a comeback the spirit with which they played the game was commendable. In the two matches they have played with the Bulls, the results were always close as they tied one match and the other. They won the first match by two points and in the second, they ended the match in a tie. Though they could have won the second match as well if only Naveen was able to return safely after crossing the baulk line but instead he got tackled. Though most of Delhi dependance has been on their raiding with Naveen, Chandran Ranjit and Vijay in the team, the defence hasn’t done too bad themselves. However, Ravinder Pahal seems like their weakness at times when he doesn’t have a good start, in the last two matches he had a strike rate of less than 30% which definitely harms the team. Apart from that the team looks set for the semi-finals.
The Bulls pulled off a miracle in the last match by winning the first-ever Kabaddi match which went into extra time. They were ones lagging behind by 11 points but came back into the match courtesy of Pawan Sehrawat’s raiding skills. He scored multi-point raids to tie the actual main game score and then a 4 point super raid to win the eliminator 2. Bulls at one point kept repeating their mistake but the substitution of Injured skipper Rohit Kumar helped in better guidance of the defence. Though Bulls faced the same problem they have faced throughout of not having a support raider, Sumit tried his best to fill that void in the last match as he finished the match by scoring 7 raid points. The defence seemed out of form and if they make the same mistakes against Naveen Kumar, then the team might not be able to recover as well as they did in this match. Mahender Singh was the top tackle points scorer with 4 points but even he made 3 unsuccessful tackle attempts which put a big dent in his efforts. To win this match the Bulls need to find their rhythm as a team and play accordingly.
Key players
Naveen Kumar
Naveen’s ability is enforcing errors and he has destroyed opponents defence with that strategy in this whole season. Against the Bulls he would look to cash in on their form. He is the most consistent player in the PKL as he has scored 20 Super Tens in the 21 matches he has played. He has scored 268 points in 21 matches till now which means an average of 12 raid points per match. He has continuously done well for the team and the same would be expected of him in this match as well.
Pawan Sehrarwat
He scored 20 points in 25 raids in the last match so he is an obvious choice for the key player of the team. He got tackled seven times and almost sat out of the court form 18 minutes but he was still able to impact the game the way he did. The coach would hope for a similar performance from the top scorer of the season.
Squad
Dabang Delhi KC: Meraj Sheykh, Joginder Narwal, Chandran Ranjit, Ravinder Pahal, Naveen Kumar, Vijay Malik, Vishal Mane, Anil Kumar, Saeid Ghaffari, Sombir, Pratik Patil, Neeraj Narwal, Satywan
Bengaluru Bulls: Rohit Kumar, Pawan Kumar Sehrawat, Ashish Kumar, Amit Sheoran, Sumit Singh, Mohit Sehrawat, Banty, Mahender Singh, Vijay Kumar, Sanjay Shreshtha, Lal Mohar Yadav, Sandeep, Raju Lal Choudhary, Vinod Kumar, Aman, Ajay, Ankit
Predicted 7
Dabang Delhi KC: Naveen Kumar, Chandran Ranjit, Vijay, Ravinder Pahal, Joginder Narwal, Vishal Mane, Anil Kumar
Bengaluru Bulls: Rohit Kumar, Pawan Sehrawat, Mahender Singh, Saurabh Nandal, Sumit Singh, Ankit, Amit
Time: 16th October, 7:30 pm
Venue: Eka Arena By Transstadia, Ahmedabad
Fantasy picks: Pawan Sherawat (Captain), Naveen Kumar (vice captain)
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