Pro Kabaddi League 2018: Match 31- Bengaluru Bulls vs Haryana Steelers| Match Preview, Probable lineups| Inter Zone Challenge Week

The Bengaluru Bulls will take on the Haryana Steelers on 24th October in an Inter Zone Challenge Week match at the Pro Kabaddi League 2018. The Bengaluru Bulls are in the 3rd place in Zone B table, having played just 3 games and winning 2 of them. The Steelers, in contrast, are in the 4th place but have played 7 games.

The Haryana Steelers ended their miserable run in their home leg on a positive note with a 34-31 win against Dabang Delhi KC. They had a good opening match which they won but when star defender Surender Nada got injured, the Steelers' lack of bench strength affected them as they were exposed even in the raiding department.

Monu Goyat's sudden rise in form and spirited performance helped them win against Delhi, and he has 43 points from 6 games. Otherwise, it was Vikas Khandola who was the star player for Haryana.

His situations have been far more precarious and he has done a great job both as the main raider and the support raider. He has scored 45 points in 7 matches with 2 Super 10s and was instrumental in their side getting a solitary point for losing by a margin of seven points.

Defensively the team did try its best to adapt to the absence of Surender Nada and Kuldeep initially did very well in the left corner, even getting a High 5 but later fizzled out to get 14 points from 7 games. Sunil in the right corner shared the same story with one High 5 and 13 tackle points in 7 games.

The arrival of left cover Parveen, who has been brilliant so far with 11 tackle points, has cost experienced campaigner Sachin Shingade his place in the side. Mayur Shivtarkar has looked uncertain in his role as right cover. All in all, the defense was messy over the Haryana leg and failed to combine those performances into a solid outing for the defenders.

The Bengaluru Bulls lost out narrowly to the home team Puneri Paltan on Sunday. The Bulls, who had the lead, slowly let the Paltan take the lead mostly due to substitute Akshay Jadhav's efforts. They were trailing by 1 point in the last raid of the match when Kashiling Adake came in to raid and the defensive resilience shown by the Paltan was great as they waited till the very end and tackled Kashi to win 24-25.

The Bulls have had a good campaign so far, despite the loss to Pune. Pawan Shehrawat has certainly created an impact and the Paltan defenders were cautious and guarded against him; he scored only 6 points. Captain Rohit Kumar's bad form has been the only question for the Bulls as he scored only 3 points from 7 raids. Kashi, despite being unable to secure the match for the Bulls, was their top scorer, scoring 8 points with 3 of them being tackles.

Ashish was brilliant yet again, scoring 4 points. He has been their best defender, scoring 13 points from 3 games with a tackle success rate of 69%. Mahender Singh in the left cover has supported Ashish well with 8 points from 3 games. Jasmer has looked edgy, just scoring 5 points from 3 games and the left corner position has been uncertain with Sandeep and Jawahar Vivek scoring just 2 points between them.

Both the teams will look to push forward in their respective zones. While the Bulls will want captain Rohit Kumar to come good for them, the Steelers will hope that their defense will muster up enough strength to tame the Bulls raiders, allowing their raiders to function freely.

Both the teams have had injury concerns and with Surender Nada being ruled out for the rest of the season, the defense needs to combine well and be disciplined. Rohit will look to shake off his poor performances so far and will look to score big against the Steelers while Pawan and Kashi will look to continue their scoring spree.

Ahead of the intriguing encounter, click here to see the team standings in the Pro Kabaddi Season 6 points table.

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Probable lineups: Haryana Steelers - Monu Goyat(C), Vikash Khandola, Naveen, Kuldeep, Sunil, Mayur Shivtarkar, Parveen

Bengaluru Bulls - Rohit Kumar(C), Kashiling Adake, Pawan Shehrawat, Ashish, Sandeep, Jasmer Singh, Mahender Singh