The 10^th season of the Pro Kabaddi League is now in the books, with Puneri Paltan being crowned champions for the first time. After a gut-wrenching 33-29 loss to the Jaipur Pink Panthers in last year’s final, the Paltan managed to get over the line with a 28-25 win over Haryana Steelers on March 1.

It was a dominant campaign from the title-winners, as they only lost twice in the league stage, the fewest defeats for any team in a season since it expanded to 22 games. Their success led to captain Aslam Inamdar (142 raid points, 26 tackle points) taking home MVP honors for the season while their big auction acquisition Mohammadreza Chiyaneh (99 tackle points) won Defender of the Season.

A Paltan clean sweep for awards was prevented by Dabang Delhi, with Ashu Malik (276 raid points) winning Raider of the Season and Yogesh Dahiya (74 tackle points) winning NYP of the Season. While Malik won the award, as per our Net Points per Raid metric, Arjun Deshwal was just about the best raider of PKL 10 by the narrowest of margins.

While Deshwal also finished with the best raid success rate this season at 50.9% (among raiders with 150 raids), the Pink Panthers as a team just failed to crack the top five.

A look at the tackle success rate for teams shows that there was only one that managed to make it to the top five in both categories, the Paltan.

They were far and ahead of the competition as well, with no other team even within 10 percentage points. Another interesting point here is that the Bengal Warriors were right at the top for raid success and down at the bottom for tackle. They certainly know for sure where they need to improve. It was also only the Warriors’ woes on defense that prevented the Titans from finishing dead last in both categories.

Staying with the defense, it shouldn’t be all that surprising that a list of the top five defenders in PKL 10 based on our Net Points per Tackle metric has a fair few Paltan players. None of them are at the top, though.

The Paltan also managed to finish in the top five for both Do or Die raid and tackle success rate. Interestingly, three other teams managed to do that as well, with the Pink Panthers, Giants, and Thalaivas finding themselves in both top fives.

The Paltan just excelled at so many areas, and it was no surprise then that they were ever so dominant and came away with the title. They’ll now be attempting to do what only the Pirates have done, successfully defend it. Before we wrap things up, here are some statistical snippets from the season gone by.

Most Raid Points In A Match: Sushil vs Steelers and Parteek Dahiya vs Warriors – 22

Most Raid Bonus Points In A Match: Arjun Deshwal vs Paltan – 10

Most Super Raids In A Match: Parteek Dahiya vs Warriors and Ashu Malik vs Bulls – 3

Most Tackle Points In A Match: Shubham Shinde vs Thalaivas – 11

Most Super Tackles In A Match: Sahil Gulia vs Steelers, Rinku HC vs Titans, Sumit Sangwan vs Dabang, and Rahul Sethpal vs Titans – 3

Most Raid Points In PKL 10: Ashu Malik and Arjun Deshwal – 276

Most Successful Raids In PKL 10: Ashu Malik – 234

Most Super 10s In PKL 10: Arjun Deshwal – 17

Most Tackle Points in PKL 10: Mohammadreza Chiyaneh – 99

Most Successful Tackles in PKL 10: Mohammadreza Chiyaneh – 97

Most High 5s In PKL 10: Mohammadreza Chiyaneh – 11

If you wish to know even more about the season and SportsKPI’s involvement in it, our CEO, Naveen Ningaiah, has also shared his insights on PKL 10.

Featured Image Credit: PKL