After 5 days of non-stop Kabaddi, we reach the big finals for 2020. Just like the 66th Senior Nationals the summit clash is between Railways & Services. Last year Services came to the senior Nationals without the services of Nitin Tomar, Surjeet Singh or Sandeep Kandola and just struggled to get over the line over the railways team. 

Railways have come to the finals of this year with the exact same core who won the title for them last year. A year older and so an year more mature or a bit slower. We will know in a few hours

CONTEST OF THE RAIDER COMBINATIONS

The final contest will be a clash of top raiders - Naveen Kumar and Nitin Tomar on one side and  Pawan Sehrawat and Vikas Kandola on the other side. Given how closely matched these two pairs are the result might get tilted towards the team with the better third raider - who will that be: Sachin Narwal for Services or Rohit Gulia for Railways.  Or will it be Rohit Kumar or Shrikant Jadhav. 

Another point to consider is that Services have onle one left raider in Nitin, while the remaining three are all Right raiders. While coming against them will be a collection of 1 Right Raider in Pawan and remaining all Left Raiders. 

So which defense gets faster & better set against the lead raiding pair of the opposition will mostly determine the outcome of this big contest

MATCH-UP OF THE COVERS

In a match with so many different raiding styles and skills on both sides the contest of the contrasting defensive covers could hold the key to this contest itself. Surjeet Singh and Mahender Singh are probably the strongest single covers in the game currently - with their dashes and blocks. They don't combine with each other as much as with their complementary corners. 

On the other side is Parvesh and Sunil - who are probably the epitome of covers playing together they are like music in motion as they put in their tackles as a combination on the unsuspecting raider. Their core move is to catch the defender as he is in motion looking for a running Hand touch when they go in for combinaton blocks, holds, locks and every new method they can conjure up - with immaculate timing being the key to anything they deliver on a mat.

MATCH-UP OF THE MASTER STRATEGISTS

Guiding both these teams to their consistent success have been the consistency in their coaching leadership. For Railways they have leaders like Dharmaraj Cheralathan (see how he stays fit)

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on the mat itself and working closely with him is Haryana Steelers Coach and his long time Railways collegaue Rakesh Kumar. The on ground leadership for railways is coach Sanjeev Baliyan from UMumba and Coach Rana Tiwari. On the other side, coming up against them is Coach Ram Meher who will be looking to reverse the loss of last year with a strong performance from his team. What plans will both these teams get onto the Mat with!

As you wait for the match to kick start why not re- view a classic match between these two teams at the Pandit Deen Dayal Trophy, 2019.

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