PKL 2018 Day 1 highlights:U Mumba, Puneri Paltan settle for tie in thriller

Defending champions Patna Pirates began their title defence on a disappointing note as they crashed to 26-42 defeat against Tamil Thalaivas in the opening match of Pro Kabaddi League season six

7:32 PM

PLAYER HEAD-TO-HEAD

AJAY THAKUR (CHE) v KULDEEP SINGH (PAT)
 

Overall PKL: Ajay Thakur 7 – 6 Kuldeep (SUPER TACKLE – 3)

PKL 5: Ajay Thakur 2 – 2 Kuldeep Singh (SUPER TACKLE – 2)

 

7:11 PM

Sources say Shruti Haasan likely to perform in the opening ceremony

7:10 PM

UPCOMING MILESTONES

 

• Manjeet Chhillar (CHE) is 7 tackle points away from becoming the first defender to complete 250 tackle points in PKL.

• Amit Hooda (CHE) needs 6 tackle points to be the 12th player ever to reach 150 tackle points mark.

• Deepak Narwal (PAT) needs 14 raid points to reach 200 raid points mark in PKL. 

 

7:10 PM

VENUE RECORD

 

• Home team, Tamil Thalaivas were one of the two teams along with Dabang Delhi in PKL 5 to have not won a single home game. (Mts – 6 | Won – 0 | Lost – 6)

 

7:09 PM

HEAD-TO-HEAD

Matches – 3 | Tamil Thalaivas – 1 | Patna Pirates – 2 | Tie – 0 

• Patna Pirates have defeated Tamil Thalaivas in two of their 3 encounters in PKL 5.

• Except the first game (PAT won by 11 pts), other two games were decided by a very narrow margin of less than 5 points.

 

 

6:52 PM

Patna Pirates vs Tamil Thalaivas: Starting probable seven

 

Patna Pirates: Jawahar (right corner), Tushar Patil (Right In), Kuldeep Singh (Right cover), Pradeep Narwal (Center), Manish (Left cover), Deepak Narwal (Left in), Jaideep (Left corner)

 

Tamil Thalaivas: Amit Hooda (right corner), Sukesh Hegde (Right In), Darshan J (Right cover), Jasvir Singh (center), Manjeet Chhillar (Left cover), Ajay Thakur (Left In), D Gopu (Left corner)

6:42 PM

6:39 PM

Match 1: Patna Pirates vs Tamil Thalaivas match details and live streaming info

Date: 7th October 2018, Sunday

Time: 8:00 pm (IST)

Venue: Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, Chennai

 

Tamil Thalaivas vs Patna Pirates match will be broadcasted on Star Sports, Star Sports 2 HD in English Commentary and Star Sports 1 Hindi and Star Sports 1 HD Hindi in Hindi Commentary.

 

6:23 PM

Tamil Thalaivas team news

 

On the other hand, Tamil Thalaivas had K Prapanjan as a support raider, who contributed 123 raid points in PKL 5 and finished the season as 11th leading raid point scorer. Jasvir Singh (338 Raid Pts) and Sukesh Hegde (284 Raid Pts) have 250+ raid points to their name in PKL. Other option is Surjeet Singh, who had an injury prone season last time around but still managed to score 59 raid points at a raid strike rate of 40 for debutant Haryana Steelers.

 

Meanwhile in defence they have Manjeet Chhillar and Amit Hooda in their ranks. Amit Hooda was the leading tackle point scorer of Tamil Thalaivas with 61 tackle points at a tackle strike rate of 52. While Manjeet had an injury prone PKL 5, where he scored 47 tackle points in 15 matches at an average of 3.1 tackle points per game.

6:20 PM

Patna Pirates team news

 

The defending champions tried to maintain a balance between their attack and defence by picking some crucial players in Pro Kabaddi League Auctions 2018 but it will be interesting to see whether they are in-form or not. They have included the all-rounder Kuldeep Singh in their ranks. In PKL 5, Pardeep Narwal of Patna Pirates had a great support in Monu Goyat last season as Monu finished the season being the 4th leading raid point scorer of the season with 191 raid points. Now, with Monu moving to Haryana Steelers for a whopping Rs 15 million, Patna Pirates have roped in Bengal Warriors second-in-command Deepak Narwal as a main support in raiding. Deepak scored 85 raid points in 16 games in PKL 5 at a raid strike rate of 45. He was also the part of Pirates when they won their first Pro Kabaddi League title in season 3.

6:20 PM

6:19 PM

6:18 PM

6:17 PM

Build-up

In Match 1 of Pro Kabaddi League (PKL 2018) season 6, defending champion Patna Pirates will lock horns with Tamil Thalaivas at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai. Tamil Thalaivas will try to forget their poor PKL 5 stats at home and give a tough fight to Pirates. In Vivo PKL 5, Thalaivas were one among the two teams who failed to win a single home game.

 

Patna Pirates captain Pardeep Narwal said the team had prepared well for the new season and aimed to win the title again. "This season I have worked on multiple strategic moves to counter our opponents. For Patna Pirates, one of the most challenging teams we believe is Puneri Paltan because their defence is very strong. I look forward to the season and I am going to take the trophy home this time," he added.

Meanwhile, after a poor outing in PKL 5, Tamil Thalaivas is primed for a good show. Captain Ajay Thakur said the team had a nice balance and can be expected to challenge the other outfits."In the previous season our team composition was heavy on youngsters. So, if it happened that I was not on the mat, taking instant decisions was tough. This year, the team has a perfect balance of young and experienced players, we have Manjeet Chillar, Jasvir Singh and Sukesh Hegde who can take phenomenal decisions at the spur of the moment during the match," he added.