Ultimate Kho Kho: Chennai Quick Guns’ thrilling win over Gujarat Giants, Telugu Warriors beat Mumbai players to become table toppers

Pune, August 23, 2022: Chennai Quick Guns defeated Gujarat Giants by a margin of 2 points in their fifth match of the first season of Ultimate Kho Kho at Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Mahalunge on Tuesday. This is Chennai Quick Guns’ third win in five matches while Gujarat’s second defeat in five matches. In the opening match of the day, Telugu Warriors defeated Mumbai Players by 12 points to claim the top spot in the points table.

In a thrilling match, victory and defeat were decided in the last second. The hero of Chennai’s victory was Ramji Kashyap, who scored 20 points while dismissing seven players. Apart from him, Wazir Madan scored 11 points to his name. Amil Patil, Vijaybhai Begad and Buchanegai Raju contributed significantly to the team’s victory as all three of them brought valuable bonus points to the team at crucial junctures. Raju was on the mat in 3 minutes 56 seconds. Aniket Pote scored the highest 10 points for Gujarat.

Gujarat got off to a good start by winning the toss and defending against Chennai. The defenders not only allowed Chennai to collect 21 points in the first turn but also got the batch bonus. Sagar Potdar, who was in the first batch, missed out on the bonus by a second, but despite the powerplay, Suyush Gargate, who was in the second batch, managed to take the bonus while staying on the mat in 2 minutes 40 seconds.

In reply, Gujarat in the second turn dismissed the first two batches of Chennai Quick Guns in 3 minutes 42 seconds to make the score 17-21. Gujarat took a 22-21 lead during the powerplay but Amit Patil, who was part of Chennai’s third batch, took a four-batch bonus. Amit stayed on the mat for three minutes five seconds. Gujarat was ahead 27-25 till the first half.

To maintain this lead, the Gujarat defenders had to spend maximum time on the mat. While doing so, the trio of Sagar, Siva Reddy and Marappa spent a lot of time on the mat. Marappa gave the two teams four valuable bonus points. He stayed on the mat for three minutes and three seconds. The second batch of Gujarat finished on the mat of one minute 51 seconds. There were still two minutes and 6 seconds left in the end of this turn and Chennai got a 42-31 lead.

During the third batch, Chennai committed several consecutive fouls and taking advantage of this, the third batch of Gujarat managed to spend 2 minutes and 6 seconds on the mat. By the end of the third turn, Chennai had a lead of 47-31.

In the final turn, the first batch of Chennai showed excellent defense and took the batch bonus. Vijaybhai Begad and Buchanegai Raju did not stop there and took the second bonus as well. Vijaybhai got out but Raju took the team 53-36 with the third batch bonus. Raju was on the mat in 3 minutes 56 seconds.

After dismissing the second batch in 1 minute 06 seconds, Gujarat made the score 46-53. There was 1 minute 44 seconds between his victory and defeat. Suyush Gargate dismissed Rome Mohan to make the score 48-53. Aniket Pote dismissed V. Kabilan in the last second but Pritam Cholange remained unbeaten and that was the reason for Gujarat’s defeat. And thus Chennai won the match by a margin of 2 points.

Earlier, Telugu Warriors defeated Mumbai players 55-43 in their fifth match on the back of excellent performances from Wazir Sachin Bhargo and Prajwal KH. Naschin not only got 10 points in this match by getting four players out but also scored his own. Points were also collected as a bonus for contributing to the team’s fifth win. Apart from Sachin, Rohan Singhade has 11, Adarsh ​​Mohit 8 and Avdhoot Patil has 6 points besides bonus. Avik Singha scored the highest 8 points for Mumbai.

Mumbai won the toss and elected to defend and played well in the first turn. Mumbai’s team also defended well in the second turn but the slowness of the attack overshadowed them. During the defense, four of his batches allowed the Yoddhas to collect only 26 points in the first turn.

In the attack, however, this team could only get 20 points. He also gave bonuses during the attack and thus by the end of the first innings, Mumbai were 20-28 behind.

In order to consolidate their lead, the Yoddhas started the third turn with a powerplay and took a 37-20 lead by dismissing Mumbai’s first batch in 2:23 seconds. During the defence, Durvesh Salunke gave Mumbai four bonus points. Despite this, by the end of this turn, the Yoddhas had got a lead of 51-24.

Mumbai now needed to do better in the attack. Captain Hazare started it by dismissing Dhanush KC on pole dive but despite this Prajwal managed to collect the batch bonus for the warriors. The first batch of Yoddhas finished on the mat of 3 min 01 sec. The score was 32-53 in favor of the Warriors.

The second batch of Yoddhas disappointed Mumbai and won the bonus once again. The third batch got out in two minutes 52 seconds and now the score was 55-40. The match had slipped out of Mumbai’s hands as they had only one minute 7 seconds left. He took the powerplay but to no avail and thus Mumbai suffered their fourth defeat of the season.

Odisha Juggernauts and Mumbai players will take on Chennai Quick Guns and Rajasthan Warriors respectively in the first and second matches on Wednesday.

Six franchise teams – Chennai Quick Guns, Gujarat Giants, Mumbai Khiladiers, Odisha Juggernauts, Rajasthan Warriors and Telugu Warriors are competing in Season 1. Ultimate Kho Kho is promoted by Amit Burman in association with Kho Kho Federation of India.

The final of India’s first franchise-based Kho-Kho league will take place on 4 September.

 

Source: Ultimate Kho Kho