The Tamil Thalaivas take on the Telugu Titans in a Zone B clash of the Pro Kabaddi Season 6 at the Transstadia Arena in Ahmedabad, today evening at 8 pm IST.
The Thalaivas are coming off a 14-point loss, 22-36, against U Mumba and are in desperate need of a win to keep themselves afloat in the competition.
It was the Thalaivas' defense which led them to a loss against U Mumba by managing just 5 tackle points in the encounter. The defensive pillars of the Thalaivas, Manjeet Chhillar, and Amit Hooda were disappointing with a single tackle point apiece. Their inconsistency is letting their team down and could lead to their elimination from the race to the playoffs.
The Titans, on the other hand, are coming off a victory against the Puneri Paltan in a low-scoring encounter with a scoreline of 28-25.
Missing the services of their captain, Vishal Bhardwaj due to injury, the Titans defense was predicted to be weaker in the encounter. But the Titans' defense, especially Krushna Madane, who was replacing Vishal on the left corner, rose to the occasion and contributed with 4 tackle points in his defense's total of 10 points.
The duo of Rahul Chaudhari (8 points) and Nilesh Salunke (6 points) did well on the night to get their team crucial raid points against the strong defense of the Puneri Paltan.
The last time the two teams, Telugu Titans and Tamil Thalaivas, faced each other was in Match-6 of the current season, where the Titans defeated the Thalaivas 33-28 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai.
Catch the latest updates of the Pro Kabaddi Points Table here at Sportskeeda...
Key Battles to keep an eye on:
#1 Ajay Thakur (right raider) vs Krushna Madane (left corner)
#2 Rahul Chaudhari (two-sided raider) vs Manjeet Chhillar (left cover)
Probable playing 7:
Tamil Thalaivas: Ajay Thakur (c), Sukesh Hegde, Jasvir Singh/Athul MS, Manjeet Chhillar, Ponparthiban Subramanian, D.Pradap, and Amit Hooda
Telugu Titans: Abozar Mighani (c), Rahul Chaudhari, Nilesh Salunke, Mohsen Maghsoudlou, Farhad Milaghardan, Anil Kumar, and Krushna Madane
When and where to watch: 20:00 IST on the Star Sports network and on digital streaming platform Hotstar