Matchday 2 turned out to be a ‘merry’ one for fans of Gujarat Giants and Chennai Quick Guns, as their star players became their Santa for the night, bearing special gifts on Christmas Day.
Gujarat displayed an all-round show to win 41-30 against Rajasthan Warriors in their season opener. On the other hand, Chennai and Telugu Yoddhas had a high-intensity last turn before the former won the match by 6 points.
Here we take a look a how both the matches on Matchday 2 fared in the Ultimate Kho Kho Season 2:
Match 3 | Rajasthan Warriors vs Gujarat Giants
The Warriors won the toss and chose to attack. They started well with a Pole Dive, but the Gujarat defenders were up to the task. Although Batch 1 missed out on a Dream Run by a mere 13 seconds, Batch 2 managed to avenge the same and score an all-important Dream Run, even though the Warriors had their Powerplay on. By the end of Turn 1, the score read 14:1 in the Warriors’ favour.
When the Giants took on the mat to defend, they put up a sturdy show, quickly sailing through the first three batches of the Warriors, almost nearing an All-Out. However, an inspired Jagannath Murmu managed to hold on in the fourth batch to ensure Turn 2 ended with a scoreline of 14-23, with Giant way ahead in the chase.
When Turn 3 came, the Warriors went all out and managed to send back the first two batches of the Giants, with 3:36 minutes remaining on the clock. However, Akshay Bhangare showed his class in Batch 3 and went on to score a fantastic double Dream Run, which almost sealed the deal in the Giants’ favour. The teams entered the last turn with the scoreline reading 30:25.
The Warriors had a mountain to climb, and to put more pressure, Gujarat started with a Powerplay. Rajasthan came extremely close to getting the Dream Run, but missed out by a second. However, the giant lead of Gujarat was too much for the Warriors to overcome, and when the final whistle blew, the scoreline read 30:41 in the favour of the Giants.
Match Awards
Attacker of the Match: Sourabh Gadge (Rajasthan Warriors)
Defender of the Match: Shubham Thorat (Gujarat Giants)
Ultimate Kho of the Match: Suyash Gargate (Gujarat Giants)
Match 4 | Chennai Quick Guns vs Telugu Yoddhas
The Yoddhas won the toss and chose to defend. Chennai began with a Powerplay to build pressure. Batch 1 and 2 held on for around two minutes, but missed out on scoring a Dream Run. However, a steady Turn 3 and 4 from Telugu, saw Chennai ending Turn 1 with a lead of 18:0.
In Turn 2, Chennai started their defence magnificently by scoring a remarkable triple Dream Run, as their Batch 1 managed to stay on the mat for a whopping 4:13 seconds. Telugu took the Powerplay when Batch 2 came in to get some feet back into the game, and were able to get rid of them soon. However, they were not able to outrun Batch 3 and ended Turn 2 with a deficit of 7 points, with the score reading 21-14 in Chennai’s favour.
Chennai started with a Powerplay in Turn 3 to keep the pressure up against the Yoddhas. They were able to do away with the first two batches fairly early, but Batch 3 battled on and was successful in scoring a double Dream Run to end their defence on a high. With the last 7 minutes pending, the score read 37-16.
Yoddhas began Turn 4 strongly, but Chennai fought back. They still had two minutes remaining on the clock when Batch 3 came in to defend their scoreline and managed to stay till the end. The final scoreline read 38-32 in Chennai’s favour.
Match Awards
Best Attacker: Durvesh Salunke (Chennai Quick Guns)
Best Defender: Vijay Shinde (Chennai Quick Guns)
Ultimate Kho of the Match: Ramji Kashyap (Chennai Quick Guns)
