UP Yoddha will face Telugu Titans for the second time in Pro Kabaddi Season 8 on Saturday at Bengaluru’s Sheraton Grand, Whitefield. 

Telugu Titans, who have just had one win in the season so far, are 12th in the PKL standings with 32 points. UP Yoddha have slipped to eighth place after losing four consecutive matches at 42 points. 

Interestingly enough, there is just a three-point difference between UP Yoddha and the fourth placed team, Jaipur Pink Panthers, and the contest is still wide open for a top-six spot and qualification for the PKL playoffs.

UP Yoddha come into this match with a closely fought 35-37 loss against Patna Pirates. The Titans registered a 43-25 loss at the hands of the Tamil Thalaivas recently. 

Players to watch out for - UP Yoddha

Surender Gill continues to be in terrific form, picking 131 raid points in the 15 matches played so far. He has also picked six super 10s, the most by a UP Yoddha player this season. Moreover, in the previous match against Puneri Paltan, Gill played his first match as the main raider and picked up a super 10. 

Pardeep Narwal is the other raider to have crossed the three-figure mark for UP Yoddha with 107 raid points. 

Nitesh Kumar has 43 tackle points, the most by a Yoddha, followed by Sumit, who has 39 tackle points. The corner pair has two high 5s each. This corner combination has 82 points, two points more than all other UP Yoddha defenders combined.

Players to watch out for - Telugu Titans

Ankit Beniwal is the Titans’ most successful raider with 69 raid points followed by Rajnish, who has 67 raid points. They both have three super 10s each. 

However, Galla Raju was the best performer for the Titans in their most recent game with nine raid points. 

Sandeep Kandola, with 36 tackle points in 13 games, is the most successful defender for Telugu Titans. He also has two high 5s this season so far. 

UP Yoddha vs Telugu Titans head-to-head

UP Yoddha and Telugu Titans have been a part of nine encounters so far. UP Yoddha have heavily dominated the interactions, winning five, drawing two and losing two games. 

Their most recent encounter happened exactly two Saturdays ago, which UP Yoddha won 39-33. Pardeep Narwal had scripted a super 10 and Nitesh Kumar had grabbed a high 5 in this game while Rajnish and Ankit Beniwal had both picked 9 raid points each. 

Recent form

UP Yoddha - L, L, L, L, W

Telugu Titans - L, T, L, L, W