PKL 2018 | Defence vs Offence - the story of the PKL Final

It all started on one fine autumn evening in the month of October in Chennai when the Tamil Thalaivas took on the defending champions Patna Pirates in the inaugural match of the sixth edition of the very popular Pro Kabaddi League. Patna came into the tournament with an aim of making it four in a row as the team from Bihar’s capital has been doing since the third edition of the league. But, who knew that on the judgement day it will be two teams, which never have won the title, locking horns for the coveted silverware. So, this will be a first such season after three long years in the short history of the tournament that it will see a new team lifting the trophy in front of a packed house at the Dome@NSCI, SVP Stadium in Mumbai. 

As far as the team composition goes, the Bulls don’t have a single player in the current team who was a part of the runners-up side from 2015 while the Fortunegiants must be happy with the fact that their top raider – Sachin and top defenders – Sunil Kumar and Parvesh Bhainswal are still with them. Pawan Sehrawat, who has gone on to be a revelation in the ongoing season was with the Gujarat unit in the previous one and went to play the final as a substitute and managed to collect a point for them as well. The franchise from the Garden City will want to script history in Mumbai while for the team from the 2016 World Cup venue will want to be there at the right time at the right place to undo the mistakes of last edition’s final. 

When it comes to the mistakes, I think Gujarat will not afford too many in defence as they have one of the best defensive units of the league with some top defenders under the leadership of right cover Sunil Kumar. Players like Parvesh Bhainswal at the left cover position and Ruturaj Koravi at the right corner have impressed with their performance on the mat as well. Sunil and Parvesh make a strong cover combination for the team and the team has succeeded in the games when the cousins have shone on the mat. 

The skipper has affected three High 5s in winning causes for the team while the left cover has done that four times as well. The cover combination has scored 156 tackle points in total which is more than 58% of the total tackle points and this shows how much the team relies on the two. Sachin Vittala and Hadi Oshtorak also have the tackling moves to surprise any top raider in the world and this might prove really difficult for a strong raiding unit of the Bulls. 

Rohit is back in form and after recovering from a muscle injury, senior star Kashi will try to make amends as well. Again, we all know that Pawan has the ability to change the course of the game in a single raid. It is certain that the two coaches BC Ramesh and Randhir Singh must have made some serious plans surrounding the three raiders to get maximum points going against the strong defensive unit. They have the option of utilising Harish Naik whenever there is a need during the final clash. Taking a look at the numbers and the kind of effective and instrumental players in the two teams this can be clearly called a game between Gujarat’s defence and Bengaluru’s raiding department. 

Rohit is 10th in the list of Top Raiders this season with a total of 161 points but we have to remember that the skipper was not 100% fit on the mat during first few games this season. However, Sunil is at the fourth position as far as the tackle points go and he has played an instrumental role along with Parvesh in Gujarat’s successful journey in 2018. He has led the team with an example by picking up 72 tackle points from 24 matches which include amazing numbers in winning causes for the franchise as well. 

But why only the defenders from Gujarat and raiders from Bengaluru take all the limelight in the summit clash. Many eyes will be on the duo of Sachin and Prapanjan in Gujarat's raiding department and it is to be seen that how they are going to come up with the defensive unit of the Bulls comprising of players like Raju Lal Choudhary, Amit Sheoran, Mahender Singh and Ashish Sangwan on the mat.

Whatever the result might be, thousands of kabaddi lovers at the Dome@NSCI in Mumbai and millions of fans glued to their TV sets in the evening will have a breathtaking game to watch as PKL is all set to have a new champion after a long time in the tournament’s rich history after the Final Panga today.