Gujarat Giants put up a complete performance in attack and defence as they defeated Rajasthan Warriors 41-30 in their first match of the second season of Ultimate Kho Kho, at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Cuttack on Monday. In the second match of the night, Chennai Quick Guns beat Telugu Yoddhas 38-32.
P Narasayya contributed to the Giants’ win with eight points while Sanket Kadam and Suyash Gargate notched up six points each in the match.
Shubham Thorat, Abhinandan Patil and Akshay Bhangare defended brilliantly for more than 6.53 minutes to earn crucial dream run bonus points for the winning team.
Gujarat Giants stayed on the top of the game from the get-go as they earned a dream run in the first turn, allowing Rajasthan Warriors to get only 14 points. They maintained their positive intent when they switched to chase and notched up 22 points to obtain a big lead in the first inning.
Rajasthan Warriors began the second inning aggressively and got the first batch of Gujarat’s defence in just 1.30 minutes. However, the Giants then earned two dream run bonus points to turn the match completely in their favour.
Rajasthan managed to gain 16 points during the third turn but it wasn’t enough as Gujarat secured 16 points in turn four as well to clinch the contest.
Quick Guns beat Yoddhas
The Yoddhas, runners-up from the inaugural edition last year, suffered their first loss of the season after a win on the opening day.
After winning the toss, Yoddhas decided to take the mat as the defending side for the first Turn of the game. Chennai Quick Guns earned some early points in quick succession, with the majority (12) coming through running touches.
However, the Yoddhas came back stronger, preventing their opponents from eliminating all four batches. By the end of the first Turn, the scorecard favoured the Quick Guns 18-0.
Turn 2 of the first inning saw Yoddhas’ Adhitya Ganpule and Dhruv each earned four points through their attacking skills, leading the score chart for their side. However, some unforced errors by the Yoddhas later in the same turn hindered their ability to capitalize on the momentum gained in the initial minutes.
This restriction limited them to earning 14 points by the halfway mark, while the scorecard read 14-21 in favour of the Chennai side.
The second inning began with Turn 3, where Telugu Yoddhas came back stronger, tasked with limiting their opponent from scoring maximum points, and they succeeded in their aim. Captain Pratik Waikar completed a dream run, earning two crucial points for the Yoddhas.
Quick Guns however ended the Turn 37-16.
The Yoddhas kicked off the final Turn positively, but could not catch up to the Chennai team that went on to win by six points.