U.P. Yoddha seek reprisal in Patna Pirates rematch

U.P. Yoddha succumbed to two straight losses after an impressive win against Tamil Thalaivas and find themselves in the second spot of the Zone B standings. They will want to get a win under their belt in their upcoming match against Patna Pirates in order to climb to the top of their zone. Patna Pirates managed a narrow 43-41 win against them the last time the two teams met and a win in this contest will see them claim a position among the top 3 teams of the zone. Both teams will have everything to play for in their Zone B rematch.   

Match 15 (Zone B): Patna Pirates vs U.P. Yoddha

Head-to-head: Patna Pirates 2-1 U.P. Yoddha. 1 Tie

U.P. Yoddha and Patna Pirates had a balanced record against each other coming into the season with each team having one victory over the other. But Patna Pirates’ win in Match 9 sees them take an edge and they will be carrying that confidence with them when they take on U.P. Yoddha on Sunday.

An intense battle between U.P. Yoddha and Patna Pirates saw the advantage change hands several times. Captain Pardeep Narwal was the key raider for them in that battle and he will be in Sunday’s match as well. He has scored a Super 10 in each of his team’s games so far and his unpredictability could unsettle the U.P. Yoddha defence, which is exactly what his team will be hoping for. Manjeet and Deepak Narwal have performed well in patches and either of them could step up to support Pardeep. Their defence has Jawahar Dagar and Jaideep at the helm but contributions by Vikas Kale and Kuldeep Singh in their game against U.P. Yoddha showed the kind of depth their defence has.

U.P. Yoddha have been led by their raiders Rishank Devadiga, Prashanth Kumar Rai and Shrikant Jadhav who have been scoring consistently for their team. Nitesh Kumar and Sagar Krishna have also manned the Corners with a lot of resolve which makes them a fearsome combination. The defenders have narrowly been missing a High 5 in every game and will hope they reach there against Patna Pirates.

The big battle

Pardeep Narwal vs Nitesh Kumar

Pardeep Narwal has 27 points in two games so far and will want to extend his tally of Super 10s even further when he takes the mat against U.P. Yoddha. Corner Nitesh Kumar, though, has had reasonable success in his team’s matches so far and even managed 4 tackle points against Patna Pirates in their previous outing. This makes him a man to watch for Pardeep Narwal.

Key Khiladi

Manjeet – Patna Pirates

After scoring 8 raid points in Patna Pirates’ opening game against Tamil Thalaivas, young Manjeet was able to score just 2 points in 5 raid attempts against U.P. Yoddha. He will want to score big in his team’s rematch against U.P. Yoddha and help Pardeep Narwal in the raiding department in order to put U.P. Yoddha under pressure early.

Shrikant Jadhav - U.P. Yoddha

Shrikant Jadhav was unstoppable in U.P. Yoddha’s first game against Patna Pirates and was the only raider from his team to get a Super 10. If he continues in the same vein for his team in the rematch it could make things very difficult for Patna Pirates.