The Patna Pirates are a team that has been built around a brilliant attack. Their captain, Pradeep Narwal, has been the most valuable player of the tournament for two consecutive seasons now. He started the tournament a super 10 and was well supported by Manjeet in the opening game. With players like Deepak Narwal, Jawahar Dagar, Tushar, Naveen, and Vikas Jaglan in the squad, the Patna Pirates will not lack for attacking options on the mat.
They will, however, need to put up a much better defense than they did against the Tamil Thalaiavas. Ravindra Kumar, and Vijay Kumar will be the key to their defense along with all-rounder Kuldeep Singh. There was a lack of co-ordination in the opening game and perhaps a little bit of complacency but we expect the Patna Pirates to come back hard in this match.
U.P started the tournament in complete contrast to the Patna Pirates. There was no sign of rust and the team looked well practiced. The co-ordination was good and both the defense as well as the raiding department had clear plans. The new skipper, Rishank Devadiga, a raider, did not have the best match last time around but that should not take away from his potential. We think he is going to come into his own in this season and really make an impact.
Prasanth Rai scored 8 points for U.P and promises to be another player to watch out this season. With Azad Singh, Shrikanth Jadhav, Bhanu Pratap Tomar, and Rohit Chaudhary also on the team, the U.P Yodha raiding department is very strong. They will be aware that Patna has had some trouble with its defense and this could be the best time to exploit that weakness.
U.P Yodha’s defense will be led by Nitish Kumar, Narendar, and Sachin Kumar with a good mix of all-rounders to help provide versatility as well. We like the way U.P Yoddha is shaping up this year and think could be very difficult to stop.
There have been three previous matches between the Patna Pirates and U.P Yoddha in Pro Kabaddi. Both teams have won one match and the remaining match was a tie. The style of both teams is very similar to each other and expect non-stop action in this encounter as well.
We think the U.P Yoddha unit has the edge in this encounter thanks to them being in better form. Back U.P. Yoddha to win.