Hyderabad leg begins today; Playoffs & Final in Mumbai

Hyderabad: Following the completion of two high-octane legs at Bengaluru and Pune respectively, the Hyderabad leg of the vivo Pro Kabaddi League Season 9 will commence from Friday (November 18). The 12 franchises will face off against each other at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium until 10 December 2022 to find a place in the playoffs.

Mashal Sports, organisers of the vivo Pro Kabaddi League, announced that the vivo PKL Season 9 Playoffs & Final will be held at the Dome, NSCI SVP Stadium, Mumbai. The Eliminator 1 and Eliminator 2 will be hosted on December 13, while the semi-finals will be conducted on December 15. And the Grand Finale is set to be held on December 17.

The announcement was made during the launch conference for the third leg of the Pro Kabaddi League in Hyderabad on Thursday.

Speaking about the venue announcement of the vivo Pro Kabaddi League Season 9 Playoffs & Final, Mr. Anupam Goswami, Head Sports Leagues, Mashal Sports and League Commissioner, vivo Pro Kabaddi League said, "Mumbai has always been a sport-loving city and especially a kabaddi-loving city. And therefore, we are very excited to organize the vivo Pro Kabaddi League Season 9 Playoffs and Final in the City of Dreams. Of course, before the Playoffs and the Final, our prime focus will be to entertain the fans in Hyderabad. I look forward to kabaddi lovers in Hyderabad to make the most of watching their favourite stars in the stadium after a gap of three years."

The Telugu Titans Head Coach Venkatesh Goud exuded confidence that the crowd in Hyderabad will spur the team on to put up good performances in the third leg of the vivo PKL Season 9, "We are very excited to play in front of our home fans in Hyderabad. The fans will certainly spur us on to put up great performances and we can't wait to entertain them in the stadium. Hopefully, we'll strike form in our home city."

Matches on Friday: The match between Puneri Paltan and Haryana Steelers will be a cracker of a contest as both sides registered victories in their previous games. While raider Aslam Inamdar will lead the charge for the Pune side, the Steelers will bank on raider Manjeet.

The Telugu Titans will be eager to impress their home crowd, however, they will face a strong challenge from Bengal Warriors raiders Maninder Singh and Shrikant Jadhav.

The Bengaluru side will be looking to continue its stupendous form, but Gujarat Giants' raiders Rakesh and Chandran Ranjit will pose a stiff challenge to the Bulls on Friday.

Season 9 of the vivo Pro Kabaddi League is being broadcast live on the Star Sports Network and Disney+ Hotstar from 7:30 PM onwards everyday.