Dabang Delhi, the defending champions, are on their worst run in three seasons, while Siddharth Desai produced his best performance in as many years. From Dabang Delhi's collapse to Siddarth's [possible] comeback and Puneri Paltan's resurgence, here are the highlights of week four of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL 9), in numbers -
3
The Tamil Thalaivas are back and how! New coach Ashan Kumar is working his magic on this side -- they're now unbeaten in three matches. And the results have come against three former champions, no less. A 38-27 win over Jaipur Pink Panthers, followed by a 49-29 drubbing of defending champions Dabang Delhi and a 41-41 tie with season seven champs Bengal Warriors.
5
Dabang Delhi's PKL 9 has been a tale of two extremes: they began with five wins on the trot and have now lost five games on the trot. Things just don't seem to be working for Delhi, and captain Naveen Kumar's niggles haven't helped their cause. This is their worst run in three seasons - they lost a total of six games in PKL 8 and four games in PKL 7.
6
Five Ws and one tie - Puneri Paltan are on a roll. Fazel Atrachali's side have recovered well from a dodgy start and are now just three points shy of the table summit. And they have a game in hand too! Puneri Paltan will hope to capitalize on the remainder of their home leg matches.
9
Telugu Titans' fortunes don't seem to be changing - they're now on the back of nine continuous defeats. They have a star-studded squad, plenty of options for every position, and have come very close to wrapping up matches....but are sorely lacking killer instinct. They have all of eight points from 10 matches.
18
Siddharth Desai rolled back the clock with a stupendous game against U Mumba on Wednesday. He scored 18 points - his best performance in over three years. His previous best was the 22 points he'd scored against Jaipur Pink Panthers on September 27, 2019.
20
Vikash Kandola was roped in as Pawan Sehrawat's replacement at Bengaluru Bulls, but Bharat has established himself as the team's lead raider. He conjured an incredible five-point raid against Dabang Delhi and picked up a total of 20 points to lead his side to a solid win. Bharat is PKL 9's second-best raider with 112 raid points and has the most Super Raids [5].
21
The biggest lead a team has had this season. The Thailavas held an 21-point lead over Delhi during their match up last week. This came at the end of the first half after the Thalaivas had inflicted three All Outs and their star raider Narender had already scored 12 raid points.
34
We have a new challenger for the best defender of the season as Saurabh Nandal tops the charts for the most tackles, displacing Girish Ernak. Saurabh, Bengaluru Bulls' left corner, has 34 tackle points and 32 successful tackles to his name. He also crossed the 150 tackle points milestone, putting him on #26 in PKL history.
51
Delhi's campaign may have slowed down but Naveen Kumar has remained consistent as he brought up his 51st Super 10 this week. He's placed third on the list, with Maninder Singh [53] and Pardeep Narwal [71] ahead of him.
800
Yet another milestone for Naveen Kumar - he becomes only the sixth raider to cross 800 raid points in PKL history.