'I would like to give my love to the fans' - Dabang Delhi star Naveen Kumar opens up ahead of PKL 9

The Vivo Pro Kabaddi League Season 9 started with Defending Champions Dabang Delhi KC crushing U Mumba 41-27 in an immaculate manner at the Shree Kanteerava Indoor Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday.

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The Delhi Captain Naveen Kumar, who made a crucial contribution of 13 points, spoke about the return of fans to the Vivo PKL, "We missed the fans a lot last season. When we receive love from the fans, we do even better on the mat and we gain a lot of confidence. I would like to give my love to the fans, who came to the stadium. Hope they keep supporting us."

Commenting on his team's performance, Naveen said, "We are really happy with our performance and particularly about the way our defense unit played. We have gained a lot of confidence after our first match. The mood in the team camp is really good. The raiders and defenders did pretty well. We'll keep playing like this and keep moving forward. However, we have to be careful about injuries during the season."

The triple-panga craze will reach the peak of its heights with three games - Jaipur Pink Panthers vs Patna Pirates, Telugu Titans vs Bengal Warriors and Puneri Paltan vs Bengaluru Bulls scheduled for Super Sunday.

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The opening game of the day will witness the might of raiding duo Arjun Deshwal and V Ajith from Jaipur Pink Panthers taking on the powerful Patna Pirates Defenders in Sajin Chandrasekar and Neeraj Kumar. While Patna raiders Sachin and Rohit Gulia will be looking to take on the challenging Jaipur defense unit.

Meanwhile, Telugu Titans will be desiring to get on board after facing a tough 29-34 upset against Bengaluru Bulls on the opening day. Raiders Vinay and Siddharth Desai will be determined to get past the Bengal Warriors defense line, but it will be a hard task against defenders Girish Ernak and Surender Nada.

The Bengaluru Bulls got off to a flyer with a win over the Titans, but they'll have to continue to be at their best when they face off against Puneri Paltan raider trio of Aslam Inamdar, Mohit Goyat and Pankaj Mohite. Aslam and Mohit accumulated a whopping 328 raid points for Puneri Paltan in the previous season.