The Kind

PRO KABADDI LEAGUE PLAYOFF BEGINS

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By-Apoorv Dwivedi

Pro Kabaddi league’s 8th edition reached its playoff stages and the semi-finals have are decided. In the two eliminator matches played last night, UP Yodha and Bengaluru Bulls advanced to the last 4.

Background

Pro Kabaddi League is an annual tournament in which players from all over the world participate. The tournament began in 2014 with 8 teams. The teams are based on a franchise-based model like IPL.

4 more teams were added in the 2017 season (5th edition). The teams were divided into two zones of 6 teams each. In 2019 the tournament returned to a double Round-Robin format.

The current edition was delayed because of the Covid-19 Pandemic and began on 22nd December 2021.

Basic rules of Kabaddi are followed where 3 types of players play: Raiders- they go in the opposition’s half to score points; Defenders- their job is to stop the attacking raider in their half also called Tackle; All-Rounders- they do both raiding and defending.

Some notable additions in PKL make it interesting

  • Super raid: when any raider fetches 3 or more points
  • Super Tackle: when 3 or less defenders are on the mat and stop a raider 
  • High 5: when an individual defender brings 5 tackle points
  • Super 10: when an individual raider brings 10 raid points
  • Do or die Raid: No team can go more than 2 empty raids or the raider gets out in the third empty raid.

Under the current format, top 6 teams go in play-offs. 2 teams with the most points go directly in Semi-final, while the remaining 4 play eliminator to reach the Semi-finals.

Eliminator 1 UP Yoddha vs Puneri Paltan (42-31)

Big Match Pardeep Narwal single-handedly ran terror in Paltan’s defence. He scored 18 points in the match. In one raid he got 5 points. With an exceptional record in playoffs, he is already known as the “Playoff King”. Yoddha had to deal with the brilliance of Aslam Inamdar as he completed another super 10.

UP Yoddha will face the Table Topper Patna Pirates in semi-final. It will be an interesting match since Narwal used to be the top Raider for Pirates till the 7th edition.

Bengaluru Bulls vs Gujarat Giants (49-29)

The bulls destroyed Giants with a difference of 20 points. High-Flyer Pawan ran through Gujarat with 13 points. The defense contributed well with 16 points. Aman and Saurabh Nandal scored 4 each. 

Giants’ defense was scattered as it salvaged only 5 tackle points. Rakesh Sungroya scored 8 raid points. Bengaluru Bulls will now face Dabang Delhi KC in the Semi fInal. It will be High-Flyer Pawan Sehrawat versus high-flyer Naveen Kumar.