Tamil Thalaivas eye winning start to home leg against Bengaluru Bulls

Tamil Thalaivas begin their home leg in VIVO Pro Kabaddi Season 7 with a clash against reigning champions Bengaluru Bulls at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai on Saturday. The home side is unbeaten in their last three games and will be confident about making a positive start to their home leg. Bengaluru Bulls, on the other hand, will be looking to turn things around after having fallen short in both their previous games.

Match 45: Tamil Thalaivas vs Bengaluru Bulls

Head-to-head: Tamil Thalaivas 1 – 5 Bengaluru Bulls. 0 Ties.

Tamil Thalaivas

Form guide:

Played: 6

Won: 3

Tied: 1

Lost: 2

Win rate: 50%

Best Raider: Rahul Chaudhari

Best Defender: Manjeet Chhillar

Tamil Thalaivas have been one of the more consistent sides in the ongoing season and will be looking to make the most of their home advantage over the next week as they bid to rise to the top of the Season 7 standings. Captain Ajay ‘Iceman’ Thakur has lived up to his reputation by demonstrating his ability to keep calm and make the right decisions in crunch situations. He helped his team in difficult circumstances in the last two games to ensure that they didn’t come out on the wrong side of the result. Thakur has been supported well by Rahul ‘Showman’ Chaudhari – their leading raid points scorer this year – and Shabeer Bappu, who has offered glimpses of what he’s capable of so far. In defence, Manjeet Chhillar has been an indomitable force and currently sits second in Season 7’s list of leading defenders. Mohit Chhillar, too, picked up a High 5 in the previous game. The two can form a dangerous combination with Ran Singh to make things difficult for the free-scoring Bengaluru Bulls raiders.

Bengaluru Bulls

Form guide:

Played: 7

Won: 4

Tied: 0

Lost: 3

Win rate: 57.14%

Best Raider: Pawan Sehrawat

Best Defender: Mahender Singh

After back-to-back defeats, Bengaluru Bulls will be keen to set the record straight with a victory over Tamil Thalaivas. Pawan ‘Hi-Flyer’ Sehrawat and captain Rohit Kumar have been successful individually, but the star duo has been unable to work in tandem at times; and that is something their coach Randhir Singh will be eager to correct sooner rather than later. Their defence, meanwhile, has looked solid for the most part. Mahender Singh has been their leader in defence and has delivered time and again with crucial Super Tackles that see him sit atop the list of players with the most Super Tackles in Season 7 so far. The likes of Amit Sheoran, Saurabh Nandal and Aman have also offered glimpses of their abilities in defence, and they’ll be looking to keep up the good work against a Tamil Thalaivas side that boasts two of the top five raiders in VIVO Pro Kabaddi’s all-time raid points chart.