Our previous match against the Haryana Steelers didn’t pan out as we’d hoped as our first win of the season still eluded us. K. Prapanjan and Sachin Tanwar led our raiding department well once again, scoring 17 points between them, which was more than what Haryana’s top raiders could manage. However, the defence proved to be the difference between the two teams.

Kuldeep Singh replaced the injured Surender Nada and did it with aplomb for the Steelers. He was impeccable. He converted all 6 of his attempted tackles and finished with a perfect tackle strike rate. Sunil and Sachin Shingade too chipped in with timely tackles.

On the contrary, only skipper Sunil Kumar performed well defensively for the Giants. He scored his first High 5 of the season and showed great resolve. Unfortunately, he had little support with both Parvesh Bhainswal and Ruturaj Koravi only scoring a solitary tackle point each.

The defence was our undoing against Haryana, and Manpreet Singh would have talked to his boys about this.

Our opponents for our third encounter of the season, Puneri Paltan too played their previous game against Haryana Steelers. However, they came out with a completely different result, scoring a massive 18-point victory. Akshay Jadhav and Girish Ernak both notched up High 5s, while Nitin Tomar compiled 9 raid points in the landslide victory.

Puneri Paltan will be extremely high on confidence. Nonetheless, our Giants have also had a significant 5-day break. Undoubtedly, this would have helped them rest well and be in a good mental space for this all-important fixture.

Battle Within the Battle – Sachin Tanwar vs Nitin Tomar

Both of them are talented raiders with the ability to shift the outcome of the game in the favour of their teams within a short span of time. One can’t help but think that how they go about their business tomorrow for their respective teams will help determine the result to a great extent.

Key Giants

K Prapanjan

The star raider from Tamil Nadu top-scored for the Giants in our last encounter against the Steelers. He’s slowly getting into his groove and might just pull-off a game-changing performance in the crucial match against Puneri Paltan.

Sunil Kumar

Sunil Kumar has led the team well so far. His individual performances have also been up to the mark, having scored a High 5 in the last match. Another such performance against Puneri Paltan is the need of the hour, and he’s more than capable of making us all go “Cometh the hour, cometh the man.”

VIVO PKL 6, Match 22: Puneri Paltan vs Gujarat Fortune Giants, 9 PM IST

Venue: Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Pune

Broadcast: Star Sports Network