Pro Kabaddi 2019: All eyes on Siddharth Desai for today's match

Head to head, U Mumba have a slight edge as they won five out of 11 matches while Telugu Titans won four

In Match 84 of Pro Kabaddi 2019, Siddharth Desai of Telugu Titans will be in action against his old team, U Mumba, at Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Indoor Stadium in Kolkata on Tuesday. Head to head, U Mumba have an edge as they have won five out of 11 matches and Telugu Titans four. All eyes will be on Desai as he scored just five raid points in the previous match, he played against U Mumba. He will look to reverse the result this time.

Check Pro Kabaddi points table and schedule here
 
Can Fazel led U Mumba defence stop the in-form Siddharth Desai?
 
Rewind to PKL 2018, where Siddharth Desai was Fazel Atrachali’s go-to man in the raid department for U Mumba. Now, a season later Siddharth Desai would be locking horns against his ex-skipper. Siddharth Desai in his debut match for Telugu Titans faced Fazel’s U Mumba in the tournament opener. He had 6 failed raids and had a forgettable outing picking just 5 raid points. On the other hand, Fazel had an impressive show by scoring 4 tackle points, out of which 2 came against Siddharth Desai.

Siddharth Desai vs. U Mumba - PKL 2019				Fazel Atrachali vs. Telugu Titans - PKL 2019
Raids	14			Tackles	6
Failed Raids	6			Successful Tackles	4
Raid Points	5			Tackle Points	4
Raid SR	36			Tackle SR	67

 

Siddharth Desai has been one of the busiest raiders this season. He doesn’t go for a lot of empty raids and maintains his aggression throughout the game. Among raiders who have gone for a minimum of 150 raids, Siddharth Desai has the 2nd lowest empty raid percentage and has the 4th best raid strike rate this season.

Least Empty Raid % - PKL 2019 (min. 150 raids)
Raider	Empty Raid%
Pawan Sehrawat	23%
Siddharth Desai	24%
Pardeep Narwal	28%

 

Best Raid SR - PKL 2019 (min. 150 raids)
Raider	Raid SR
Pawan Sehrawat	68
Naveen Kumar	62
Pardeep Narwal	58
Siddharth Desai	57

 

 
Siddharth Desai peaking at the right time for Titans

Desai was not at his best at the beginning of the season. In the first four matches, he had a failed raid per cent of 42. Understandably, his team haven’t won even a single game in this span. In the next 4 matches, Siddharth Desai started to show signs of improvement as his failed raid per cent reduced to 27 and his team also had managed to win a game and tie two games in this period. In the last five matches, Siddharth Desai has been at his best averaging 11.8 raid points at an impressive raid strike rate of 76. His performance had a direct effect on Titans as they won three of their last five matches.

Siddharth Desai - PKL 2019				Team's Win%
	Avg. Raid Points	Raid SR	Raid Failure %
Home Leg (First 4 Matches)	5.8	44	42%	0%
Next 4 Matches	6.8	44	27%	25%
Last 5 Matches	11.8	76	17%	60%

 

Siddharth scored his best raiding performance in PKL career against Bengaluru Bulls to keep Telugu Titans in the hunt until the last minute of the match but ended up on the losing side unfortunately. In the last 5 mins alone, Siddharth Desai managed to score 12 raid points in that match.
 

Siddharth Desai best Raid Performance – PKL
Opponent	Raid Points
Vs. Bengaluru Bulls, PKL 7, Match 77	22
Vs. Dabang Delhi, PKL 6, Match 91	19
Vs. Haryana Steelers, PKL 7, Match 47	18

 

Top raiders and defenders for U Mumba
 
Raider: Abhishek Singh (70 raid points in 11 matches)
 
Defender: Fazel Atrachali (40 tackle points in 13 matches)
 
Top raider and defenders for Telugu Titans
 
Raider: Siddharth Desai (109 raid points in 13 matches)
 
Defender: Vishal Bhardwaj (49 tackle points in 13 matches)