The Bengal Warriors have been phenomenal over the last few weeks. They have won five out of their last six matches and are now in a position to possible top Zone B. They owe this form to the resurgence of their defense under the leadership of PO Surjeet Singh.
As skipper of the side and the best raider on the Bengal Warriors, Surjeet Singh has been instrumental in getting his team important tackle points and wresting the momentum from the opposition.
It helps to have another world-class defender like Rann Singh in the side as well.
With 15 tackle points in the last five matches for Surjeet Singh, the Bengal Warriors skipper as hit top form at the perfect time for his side.
Maninder Singh has also been in top form and is building some serious momentum heading into the Super Playoffs. His performance against the Bengaluru Bulls was brilliant with 16 points to his name. He is now just four points away from scoring 200 raid points in a PKL season for the first time in his career.
U.P Yoddha has been the team of the PKL over the last few weeks. A horrific start to the campaign all but knocked them out of contention but they regained form just as some of their other competitors starting losing theirs.
Now, after having played in a must-win situation for the last few weeks, they must win one more time to reach the Super Playoffs.
We have a feeling that the most important player for U.P Yoddha is going to be Nitesh Kumar. He has been one of the defenders in the PKL and marshals the other players brilliantly on the mat. His battle against Maninder Singh is going to be one to watch and we suspect the winner of that mini battle will end up deciding the winner of the match as well.
U.P Yoddha also has some quality raiders in its side but the form of Rishank Devadiga has been very disappointing. This is why we feel that Prashanth Kumar Rai will have to play another brilliant match to be able to lead his side to victory.
He is averaging close to a Super 10 in the last five matches for U.P Yoddha and has been responsible for getting them the majority of the raid points.
U.P Yoddha has never beaten the Bengal Warriors in five previous matches. In fact, there have been three ties between the two sides including in both their matches earlier this season. Their rivalry is a lot closer than it appears.
Recent form for both sides is excellent as the Bengal Warriors have won five out of their last six matches and U.P Yoddha is unbeaten in its last five matches as well.
We love a good underdog story and think U.P Yoddha should be able to get past the Bengal Warriors in this match. The brilliance of Nitesh Kumar and Prashanth Kumar Rai should be able to edge out the magnificent Maninder Singh and Surjeet Singh.
Back U.P Yoddha to win.