PKL 2019: Top 5 defenders of this season
The 2019 edition of the Pro Kabaddi 2019 ended with Bengal Warriors defeating Dabang Delhi K.C. to win their maiden PKL trophy at the EKA Arena in Ahmedabad last Saturday. With this win, Bengal have now joined Jaipur Pink Panthers, U Mumba, Patna Pirates and Bengaluru Bulls in the elite list of teams who have won the PKL championship.
The raiders dominated the defenders by a large margin this season as the fans witnessed a plethora of high-scoring matches in PKL 2019. The likes of Pawan Sehrawat, Naveen Kumar, Pardeep Narwal, Vikash Kandola, Siddharth Desai and Maninder Singh gave nightmares to the defenders. However, there were a few defenders who managed to trouble these raiders.
Unlike the previous season, no defender could touch the triple-figure mark in the tackle points department, but there were 19 defenders who scored 50 or more tackle points this year.
Here are the top 5 defenders of PKL 2019 -
#5 Baldev Singh, Bengal Warriors
Matches - 24, Tackle Points - 66, High 5s - 6
Bengal Warriors had raised a few eyebrows by announcing Baldev Singh as one of the retained elite players ahead of the PKL 2019 auction. However, he silenced all his critics with a stellar performance in the defensive unit of Bengal.
He played a vital role in his team's success as he formed a lethal partnership with Rinku Narwal to destroy the opposition raiders. Singh scored 66 tackle points this season with 6 High 5s. His not out percentage of 85.71% shows how tough it was for the raiders to get the better of him. Also, his tackle strike rate improved from 39% in PKL 2018 to 55% in PKL 2019.