Mighty Marathas And Kakatiya Knights Seal Top Two Spots In Archery Premier League
Chiefs’ win puts Royals’ chances of defending their title under threat as they remain on 8 points with only one match left to play.
Hyderabad: Mighty Marathas and Kakatiya Knights bounced back from their brief setbacks on Thursday to return to winning ways and seal the top two spots in the league phase of Archery Premier League Season-2 on Friday.
While the Marathas swept aside Chero Archers 6-0, Knights defeated Prithviraaj Yodhas 6-2 in one of the best matches of the season. The results took Marathas and Knights to 12 points which none of the other four teams can now match.
Earlier in the day, despite being out of contention for a place in the playoffs, the Chola Chiefs played spoilsports for the second straight evening, this time handing Rajputana Royals a damaging defeat.
The battle for the third and fourth places in the playoffs now goes down to the wire with Royals, Chero and Yodhas all level on 8 points and very little to choose between them in terms of tiebreakers.
The match of the day was local franchise Knights’ win over last season’s finalists Yodhas. Buoyed by the return of in-form Neeraj Chauhan, Knights were off to a strong start by taking the first set 77-74. The second set produced undoubtedly the most unique combination of 8 arrows as the Yodhas and Knights shot X, X, 9, 10, 9, 10, 9, and 9 in that exact same order to split the points.
The third set would also go on to be a tie as Matias Grande and Neeraj Chauhan stepped up to shoot the respective final arrows with the scores level on 67-67. Grande shot an X, and under pressure, Neeraj responded with an X of his own. It was a critical moment that preserved Knights’ two-point lead.
In the fourth set, the Knights were once again on the brink of shooting the perfect set of 80 but Neeraj’s final arrow missed the inner ring by a whisker. That 79 was, however, more than enough to give Knights the win and their place in the playoffs.
In the final match, Dhiraj Bommadevara returned to the lineup for Marathas, who also had recurver Alejandra Valencia and compounder Aman Saini in fine form as they swept aside Cheros 6-0. While compound world No. 1 Mathias Fullerton was once again in fine form for Chero with a perfect 60.
Earlier in the day, Chiefs’ win puts Royals’ chances of defending their title under threat as they remain on 8 points with only one match left to play.
The Results: Chola Chiefs bt Rajputana Royals 5-3 (77-69, 73-78, 76-74, 76-76); Kakatiya Knights bt Prithviraaj Yodhas 6-2 (77-74, 76-76, 77-77, 79-75); Mighty Marathas bt Chero Archers 6-0 (75-74, 77-75, 76-71).