PKL 2018 highlights, Day 45: Bengal Warriors stun Bengaluru Bulls 44-37

In today's first match, Gujarat Fortunegiants thrash Puneri Paltan 35-20.

7:53 PM

7:52 PM

7:52 PM

7:51 PM

PKL 2018, Day 45, Match 1: Puneri Paltan vs Gujarat Fortunegiants

Puneri Paltan starting seven: GB More, Ravi Kumar, Girish Ernak, Sandeep Narwal, Monu, Shubham Shinde, Akshay Jadhav

 

Substitues: Sandeep, Rajesh Mondal, Rinku Narwal, Parvesh, Sanjay Shrestha

 

Gujarat Fortunegiants starting seven: Sachin, Sunil Kumar, Parvesh Bhainswal, Rohit Gulia, K Prapanjan, Ruturaj Koravi, Sachin Vittala

 

Substitutes: Amit Dong Geon Lee, Ajay Kumar, Hadi Oshtorak, Shubham Palkar

7:50 PM

PKL 2018, Day 45, Match 1: Puneri Paltan vs Gujarat Fortunegiants

• Pune scored 27 points in the 2nd half here with 16 of these being raid points. 

• Through the season Pune have shown themselves to be a very good second half team. In 10 of their matches they have scored more points in the 2nd half than the 1st half. 

• 3 of these matches they were trailing at half-time and came back to win or tie. 

Puneri Paltan 2nd half pts. > 1st half pts. – PKL 2018
Opponent	1st half	2nd half	HT Score	Final Result
Bengaluru, M#28	10	17	PUN trailed 10-13	PUN won 27-25
Jaipur, M#78	10	20	PUN trailed 10-17	Tie 30-30
Haryana, M#85	8	27	PUN trailed 8-23	PUN won 35-33

 

7:48 PM

PKL 2018, Day 45, Match 1: Puneri Paltan vs Gujarat Fortunegiants

• Pune have not lost in their last 2 games – their match against Jaipur ended in a tie and they won their match against Haryana.

• In both these matches, they were trailing at half-time and had to come from behind:

o vs Jaipur they trailed 10-17 (7 points)

o vs Haryana they trailed 8-23 (15 points) 

• Their comeback win against the Steelers on Wednesday was the biggest ever in PKL history

Match	Comeback Team	Deficit
Haryana Steelers v Puneri Paltan, M#85, PKL 6	Puneri Paltan	15
Patna Pirates Vs Bengaluru Bulls, M#31, PKL 3	Patna Pirates	12
Gujarat Fortunegiants Vs Haryana Steelers, M#57, PKL 5	Haryana Steelers	12
Tamil Thalaivas vs Gujarat Fortunegiants, PKL 5	Tamil Thalaivas	12

 

7:47 PM

PKL 2018, Day 45, Match 1: Puneri Paltan vs Gujarat Fortunegiants

PUNERI PALTAN: SEARCH FOR RAID POINTS

 

• Somehow Pune managed to score 22 raid points in their win on Wednesday against Haryana Steelers. 

• This was their second-best raiding performance of the season (highest 24 raid points vs Dabang Delhi – M#12) and best after Nitin’s injury.

• They did this without Nitin Tomar who still has not played since the last match against Gujarat where he got injured. 

• In the 5 games before yesterday Pune had scored just 11.8 raid points per game as compared to 16.8 in their first 11 games. 

• Pune had not scored even 15 raid points in those 5 matches, which is why their 22 raid points was a huge surprise. 

• It was a collective raiding performance for Pune as More GB and Sandeep Narwal were the top raiders against Haryana with 6 raid points each while Monu also chipped in with 5 raid points. 

• More GB is the only raider in the team to score a Super 10 apart from Nitin Tomar. 

Pune Raiders (6 matches without Nitin Tomar) - PKL 2018
Raider Name	More GB	Monu	Akshay Jadhav	Deepak Dahiya
Mts.	6	6	6	4
Raid Pts.	25	18	12	12
Avg. Raid Pts.	4.2	3.0	2.0	3.0
Raid SR	37	35	34	34

 

7:25 PM

PKL 2018, Day 45, Match 1: Puneri Paltan vs Gujarat Fortunegiants

 

GIRISH ERNAK/SANDEEP NARWAL vs SUNIL KUMAR/PARVESH BHAINSWAL

• What has been most impressive about the Sunil-Parvesh pair is they have made successful tackles in a variety of positions – Parvesh played at left corner when needed and Sunil Kumar playing at right corner, left-in etc when necessary. This was particularly seen in their home leg.

• Frequent position changes also quite effectively visible in the skill break-up Sunil as well as Sunil has 5 skills with more than 5 points this season, which is quite rare for a cover defender.

• This flexibility has really served Gujarat very well. 

• Raiders have found it tough to break the Gujarat defence as a result. Without Nitin Tomar, Pune don’t have any quality raiders and Sunil & Parvesh will look to continue their impressive run against them. 

Sunil-Parvesh Skill Breakup - PKL 2018
Player	Parvesh Bhainswal	Sunil Kumar
Ankle Hold	13	9
Thigh Hold	19	10
Chain	5	8
Dash	3	6
Block	7	12
Back Hold Points	4	1

 

7:24 PM

PKL 2018, Day 45, Match 1: Puneri Paltan vs Gujarat Fortunegiants

 

GIRISH ERNAK/SANDEEP NARWAL vs SUNIL KUMAR/PARVESH BHAINSWAL

•  
• In total contrast Gujarat are coming off a successful home leg where they won 4 out of their 6 matches (Lost just one game) and a huge reason behind their success was their elite cover combination of Sunil Kumar and Parvesh Bhainswal.

Gujarat’s Covers in Ahmedabad Leg – PKL 2018
Defender	Sunil Kumar	Parvesh Bhainswal
Mts.	6	6
Tackle Pts.	21	24
HIGH 5s	1	3
Avg. Tackle Pts.	3.5	4.0
Tackle SR	55	75

 

 

• The duo combined to score 4 HIGH 5s in the 6 matches with Parvesh Bhainswal picking up 3 HIGH 5s.
• While both scored 20+ tackle points, Parvesh did it at a stunning tackle SR of 75 in the Ahmedabad leg.
• The combination of Sunil Kumar & Parvesh Bhainswal have now overtaken U Mumba’s Fazel Atrachali and Surender Singh to become the most successful tackling pair in PKL 6 (where one is the primary defender and one is the assist defender).

Most Successful Defensive Pair – PKL 2018
Pair	Matches	Tackles	Tackle Points	Super Tackle
Parvesh Bhainswal-Sunil Kumar	13	42	45	3
Fazel Atrachali-Surinder Singh	15	43	44	1
Vikas Kale-Jaideep	13	23	24	1

 

7:23 PM

PKL 2018, Day 45, Match 1: Puneri Paltan vs Gujarat Fortunegiants

 

GIRISH ERNAK/SANDEEP NARWAL vs SUNIL KUMAR/PARVESH BHAINSWAL

• Pune started off the season with their defenders firing led by Girish Ernak who was at one stage the leading tackle point scorer.
• But their defence has been performing quite average in the last few matches as well. They have scored single-digit tackle points for 4 matches in a row:
  • 9 tackle points vs Telugu Titans, tackle SR 47
  • 6 tackle points vs Bengal Warriors, tackle SR 33
  • 9 tackle points vs Jaipur Pink Panthers, tackle SR 47
  • 8 tackle points vs Haryana Steelers, tackle SR 32
• As a team their average tackle SR in these 4 matches has been 40.
• Girish Ernak’s HIGH 5 against Jaipur (6 tackle points) was his first HIGH 5 after 7 matches and it is Pune’s only HIGH 5 in the last 10 matches.  
• Girish has 45 tackle points in PKL 6 and is top scoring defender for Pune but is averaging only 2.0 tackle points per game in Pune’s last 10 matches.
• All of their 3 key defenders are scoring with an average of just 2 tackle points per match in Pune’s last 10 matches.

Pune’s Main Defenders – Last 10 Matches
Defenders	Ravi Kumar	Sandeep Narwal	Girish Ernak
Mts.	10	7	8
Super Tackles	3	3	0
Tackle Points	20	14	16
Avg. Tackle Pts.	2.0	2.0	2.0
Tackle SR	42	47	39

 

7:14 PM

PKL 2018, Day 45, Match 1: Puneri Paltan vs Gujarat Fortunegiants

GIRISH ERNAK/SANDEEP NARWAL vs SUNIL KUMAR/PARVESH BHAINSWAL

 

• Two of the best teams in restricting opponents face off in this clash. Puneri Paltan are the 2nd best team allowing only 16.3 raid points per match while Gujarat also concede only 16.9 raid points per match. 

Teams Conceding Lowest Raid Pts.  – PKL 2018
Team	Avg. Raid Pts. Conceded
Telugu Titans	15.3
Puneri Paltan	16.3
Gujarat Fortunegiants	16.9

 

7:12 PM

PKL 2018, Day 45, Match 1: Puneri Paltan vs Gujarat Fortunegiants

HEAD-TO-HEAD

Overall PKL: Matches – 5 | Puneri Paltan - 0 | Gujarat Fortunegiants – 5 |

PKL 6: Matches – 2 | Puneri Paltan – 0 | Gujarat Fortunegiants – 2 | 

• Puneri Paltan have never beaten Gujarat Fortunegiants in 5 meetings. They have lost all their matches against them.

• This will be the two teams’ third and final meeting of the season. 

• Gujarat won by 6 points 34-28 in their first meeting (M#22):

o Sachin had 9 raid points for Gujarat with Ajay Kumar chipping in with 6 raid points.

o Sachin also had 3 tackle points (12 total points) and Parvesh Bhainswal had 4 tackle points.

o Nitin Tomar top scored for Pune with 13 raid points while Girish Ernak had a HIGH 5 (6 tackle points). No other designated defender scored tackle points for Pune. 

• Gujarat won by 10 points 37-27 in their second meeting (M#39):

o Sachin led the way with 10 raid points while Mahendra Rajput had 6 raid points

o Ruturaj Koravi was Gujarat’s best defender with 4 tackle points with Sunil Kumar and Parvesh Bhainswal both scoring 3 tackle points each.

o Nitin Tomar had 6 raid points and Ravi Kumar had 4 tackle points for Pune.

o This was the match in which Nitin Tomar picked up his injury and he hasn’t played a single game since.   

• Puneri Paltan PKL 6: 7 wins, 8 losses, 2 ties. 

o Won last match against Haryana Steelers by 3 points by making a 15-points comeback (from 23-8), which is the biggest ever comeback victory in PKL history. 

o Won only 1 of their last 5 matches (1 win, 3 losses, 1 tie). 

• Gujarat Fortunegiants PKL 6: 10 wins, 2 losses, 2 ties. Won last match against Haryana Steelers by 9 points. Have lost only once in their last 5 matches (3 wins, 1 loss, 1 tie).

 

6:43 PM

PKL 2018, Day 45: Today match schedule

Match 1: Gujarat Fortunegiants vs Puneri Paltan

Match 2: Bengaluru Bulls vs Bengal Warriors