Bengal Warriors
The most dominant side in the PKL 2019, especially in the second half, the Bengal Warriors are going to be licking their lips at this matchup. They have the best set of raiders in the league led by Maninder Singh while the Patna Pirates have one of the worst defenses.
The question here is whether the Bengal Warriors are going to be playing their best side at all. They could choose to rest some of their starting seven and have them well-rested for the playoff games.
We have seen some other teams like Dabang Delhi K.C. lose heavily after resting some of its best players as they did against UP Yoddha last night.
We would like to see Sukesh Hegde and K Prapanjan be given a bigger role for these last few matches with perhaps Maninder Singh and Mohammad Nabibakhsh given a break.
The defense of the side is led by Jeeva Kumar, Baldev Singh, and Rinku Narwal. This could be a good opportunity to see if some other defensive options are present in the Bengal Warriors squad as well.
Patna Pirates
An easy win against the Gujarat Fortunegiants would have helped put the Patna Pirates in a good frame of mind. Beating the Bengal Warriors, though, is going to be a whole different ball game.
The Patna Pirates continued to play with most of their first-choice players and will want the season on a high. Pardeep Narwal, Jang Kun Lee, and Mohammad Esmael Maghsoudlou are some of the players that will be a big threat in this match.
We are very wary of the Patna Pirates defense and don’t think they are going to be able to withstand the Bengal Warriors even if some of their top raiders are missing.
Jaideep and Vikas Jaglan are going to be the players leading the dense for the Patna Pirates
The Patna Pirates have a 9-4 lead in head to head matches over the Bengal Warriors. This lead, though, is built during a time when Pardeep Narwal was at his peak and things are very different right now.
We think the Bengal Warriors are going to be able to win this match even if they play a largely second strong side.
Bet on the Bengal Warriors to win.