Patna Pirates vs UP Yoddha: Who will win today's Pro Kabaddi 2017 match?

The Pro Kabaddi League has gone on for more than two weeks now and not a lot of fans are happy that they have seen so little of Patna Pirates till now. But what more could have the fans asked for than a contest with one of the most formidable sides when they are finally seen in action. With the kind of form UP Yoddha are in, the contest surely promises to be a high intensity and thrilling one and not a one-sided affair as most of the Patna Pirates matches till now have been.

LIVE COMMENTARY: Patna Pirates vs UP Yoddha, 13 August 2017

Both the teams are close to each other on the Zone B points table with an equal number of points and definitely realize the importance of this tie which will put the winner at the top of the table. However, a win for either sides won’t be easy. Patna Pirates have played like a champion team and are yet to taste defeat in this season.

They hardly broke a sweat in winning their three fixtures, two against Telugu Titans and one against Bengaluru Bulls. The score difference for Patna Pirates is a whopping 27 points in the positive that just goes on to tell about the domination that they have enjoyed in their limited showings in the Pro Kabaddi League Season 5. Pardeep Narwal has gone on doing what he does the best – making the game ridiculously easy for himself and difficult for others. Goyat also deserves a lot of credit for his doing as the team’s second raider exceptionally well.

For UP Yoddha, Captain Nitin Tomar has led with example. He didn’t come into the tournament with a reputation as huge as that of someone like a Rahul Chaudhari or Rohit Kumar, but his performances tell that he might end the tournament with a similar one. What has worked for him is the fact that the team has rallied behind him and everyone is doing their job well.

Against Patna Pirates, however, doing the job well won’t work and the team will have to play out of their skins to stop the raids by Narwal and Goyat and survive the tackles of Vishal Mane and Sachin Shingade.

Patna Pirates vs UP Yoddha match prediction

The 26th match of Season 5 is easily one of the most difficult to call and even Paul the Octopus would have thought twice before choosing a winner out of the two. The contest is simply between the raiders as both the teams possess some outstanding names in their raiding department.

However, Patna Pirates owing to their defending champions tag combined with their hat trick of wins coming into the match will have a psychological upper hand and that can prove to their advantage eventually.