The Jaipur Pink Panthers have been carried on the shoulders of one man this season. Deepak Niwas Hooda is having a breakout year in the PKL and will do his reputation no harm by continuing in the same vein. He has seven Super-10’s in the last 11 matches and has already scored over 100 raid points for the season.
No other Jaipur Pink Panther player has even one Super-10 in that time frame. That is just too much pressure on one player and it also allows the opposition to plan quite easily. There was one match against Puneri Paltan where the Jaipur Pink Panther defense did remarkably well but that was an outlier.
In general, Sandeep Dhull has led the Jaipur Pink Panther defense with support from Siddhagavali.
The pair of them will have their hands full trying to stop an in-form Monu Goyat and Vikash Khandola. The home leg has been pretty good for the Jaipur Pink Panthers as they have lost just one out of their four matches.
The Haryana Steelers are going to end Pro Kabaddi 6 with a lot of questions and problems to solve. They seem to have had put together a good squad but were outplayed by the other teams quite comprehensively.
Perhaps the poor start to this Pro Kabaddi season for Monu Goyat had something to do with it. He is back to playing at his best, though, and has overtaken Vikash Khandola for the mantle of top raid points scorer in the side.
He is averaging over 8 points per game in his last 10 and will be keen to get the best of a suspect Jaipur Pink Panther defense. If Vikash Khandola can also continue playing in the same manner as he has been this season, then the Haryana Steelers should fancy themselves in this contest.
The side will be very keen to avoid being blanked out by the Jaipur Pink Panthers this season. The Haryana Steelers is another side which has been plagued by a poor defense. The fact that both sides are bad at defending and good at raiding could make for a very close and intriguing contest.
The Jaipur Pink Panthers have defeated the Haryana Steelers on two occasions in Pro Kabaddi 6 already, Their traditional head to head record is 2-2 with an additional match being tied. The Haryana Steelers have lost their last three matches and are in poor current form.
The Jaipur Pink Panthers have been playing well at home although their performance dropped off significantly after being knockout of the running for the Super Playoffs. It will be interesting to see if they can regain some of the fire that was evident in the first few matches of their home leg.
All things considered, these are two poor teams with flawed combinations. The current form of the Jaipur Pink Panthers and the home advantage that they enjoy should give them an edge in this contest.
Back the Jaipur Pink Panthers to win.