Haryana Steelers take on the Tamil Thalaivas in an Inter-Zone Wildcard match of PKL 2018 at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Indoor Stadium in Kolkata tomorrow, Tuesday at 8 pm IST.
The Steelers are coming off a 30-39 loss against the Jaipur Pink Panthers, courtesy, yet another, poor defensive performance. The raiders of the Pink Panthers successfully managed to take 23 points from the Steelers defence, as the Steelers' defence looked out of their elements on the night.
The Tamil Thalaivas are also coming off a loss. They lost 24-27 to the Bengal Warriors due to poor defensive performance. The Thalaivas could manage just 6 tackle points on a night when their opposite numbers scored 10.
Both the teams, Haryana Steelers and Tamil Thalaivas, have had quite a similar season. Their defence has regularly led their raiders down, and on the rare occasions that their defence has performed were the ones where they have managed to secure the game.
While the Steelers' campaign was severely hampered by the injury to Surender Nada in the initial part of the season, the Thalaivas suffered from a lack of coordination between supremely talented individuals, the likes of Amit Hooda, Manjeet Chillar, Sunil and C.Arun among others.
Both the teams stare at a bottom of the table finish and would play for pride in their final encounter of the season.
Previous Meeting
The two teams, Haryana Steelers and Tamil Thalaivas, have faced each other once before in the season, in Match 62, which ended in a 32-32 tie.
Key Battles to keep an eye on
#1 Ajay Thakur (right raider) vs Kuldeep Singh (left corner)
#2 Monu Goyat (right raider) vs Sunil (left corner)
Probable playing 7
Haryana Steelers: Monu Goyat (c), Vikas Kandola, Naveen, Mayur Shivtarkar, Sachin Shingade, Sunil, and Kuldeep Singh
Tamil Thalaivas: Ajay Thakur (c), Sukesh Hegde, Jasvir Singh, C.Arun, Ponparthiban Subramanian, Amit Hooda, and Sunil
When and where to watch: 20:00 IST on the Star Sports network and on digital streaming platform Hotstar.
Catch the latest updates of the Pro Kabaddi Points Table here at Sportskeeda.