U.P. Yoddha vs Tamil Thalaivas, Pro Kabaddi (PKL), Today Match Prediction

upy vs tamt Match Prediction & Analysis

Rarely in the season we have been showered with “Tie” results. The first day of 2022 and we see 3 matches tied. Unbelievable, unexpected and sounds mischievous too. 2 teams involved in such matches will take on each other. UP Yodha were lucky to tie with U Mumba while the Thalaivas punched above their weight to force Dabang Delhi to settle for 3 points each.

This will be a very interesting encounter as the Thaliavas seem to have a better momentum than the Yodha's.

UP Yodha fought valiantly against defending champions Bengal Warriors only to loose steam in the second half. Yodha are heavily dependent on Pardeep Narwal. He was neutralized by U Mumba in their last match and UP Yodha struggled.

For the Thalaivas, their defence seems to have taken giant leaps in the realm of confidence and tenacity. Veteran Surjeet and Sagar have got back their tackle timings, while their raiders are earning them a decent harvest.

This looks like another close match, don't be surprised is this turns out to be a another "Tie".

TEAMS PREVIEW

U.P. Yoddha Preview

UP Yodha are placed 6th in the points table with 13 points from 5 games which included a victory and 2 “Tied” results. They are placed below the Tamil Thalaivas. A bit predictable, the Yodha team has not been able to create innovative approaches while playing different teams. Time and again stronger teams have been able to keep Pardeep Narwal quite and this hurts the Yodha scoring pattern.

The plot didn't work against the Bengal Warriors who isolated Pardeep in the opening encounter. So did the U Mumba defense in the last match. Though Pardeep could gather only 8 points from his 16 raids in the opening match, he will be hungry for more. The defence will need to resonate with captain Nitesh Kumar, Sumit and left cover Shubham Kumar who did well in the last match.

Young raiders like Srikant Jadhav, Sahil, Rohit Tomar, Gulveer Singh along with Iranian Mohammad Taghi and Kenyan James Kamveti will need to punch above their weight in this encounter.

Areas of improvement- Steal more bonus points, increase super tackles and inflict more all outs.

First man to score 1000 points in PKL, with over 50 super raids, holds the record for most super raids.

81 successful team raids out of 209 team raids.

41 successful team tackles, but 165 points conceded.

Tamil Thalaivas Preview

They should be known as the “Comeback Kings” or “The Tie specialist”. They seem to play safe, share the exploits rather than loose the match. They are the only team this season to have played out 3 tied matches. One can't blame them for such an approach. In the absence of star raiders, they are content with gathering points as this is a long season.

Some statistics-

73 successful raids out of 201 team raids.

Highest team tackles along with Bengal Warriors- 49

143 points earned but 164 points conceded.

Their defense has got them back, giving them some momentum as they are now a creditable 5th in the points table.

Manjeet, Bhavani Rajput and MS Athul are improving their raiding skills with every match.

Raider Ajinkya Pawar has garnished raiding points time and again. But it’s the Surjeet Singh lead defence which is playing spoilsport with the opposition raiders. In their last match against the Dabang Delhi KC, they were not able to stop the Naveen Express, but they made sure that no other Dabang raider could steal points. Hence they kept themselves in the hunt and forced the opposition to settle for a tie.

They could unleash the same tackles against the UP Yodha's.