Hyderabad, Oct 12 (SocialNews.XYZ) Mighty Marathas and Kakatiya Knights defeated in-form Chero Archers and Prithviraaj Yodhas, respectively, and prevented their opponents from opening up a lead in the standings in the Archery Premier League (APL), which is finely poised, at the halfway stage of the round-robin phase of Season 2 in Hyderabad on Monday.
In the day’s second match, defending champions Rajputana Royals ended their losing run as they left Chola Chiefs stranded at the bottom of the table.
Chero and Yodhas both had opportunities to reach eight points and pull away, but their defeats now mean four teams are level on six points after five matches played. Royals have managed to stay in touch with the leading pack on four points after registering their second win, while Chiefs continue to struggle with just one win in the first half of the season.
Archery Premier League (APL), the world's first franchise-based archery league, is initiated by the Archery Association of India and comprises six teams and a total of 48 archers, with 36 Indians and 12 elite international stars. The league, taking place at People's Plaza in Hyderabad, will culminate on October 18 with the grand finale featuring the top four teams in the semifinals, followed by the title clash.
The match of the day was undoubtedly Chero’s clash against the resurgent Marathas that went into the hit-or-miss shootoff.
Despite playing catch-up for most of the match, Mighty Marathas came from behind and scripted a thrilling shootoff win against in-form Chero Archers in the Archery Premier League (APL) Season 2 in Hyderabad on Monday.
Aman Saini and Dhiraj Bommadevara nailed their arrows into the yellow ring in APL’s signature hit-or-miss shootoff. For Chero, compound world No. 1 Mathias Fullerton scored a hit in the shootoff, but the other three archers registered misses as Marathas won 2-1 in the tiebreaker after a 4-4 draw in regulation time.
Chero, who have now lost two matches in tiebreakers this season, actually started the match strongly to take the first set. But in what turned out to be a really high-quality display of archery, the second and third sets were split between the two sides.
Another high-scoring fourth set went down to the wire, but after a few nervous seconds to check the final scores of a couple of close arrows, it went the Marathas way and the match headed into the shootoff.
Mighty Marathas, after starting the season with a couple of defeats, have now made it three wins in a row to go level with Chero on six points.
For Chero, Yashdeep Bhoge was nominated in place of the in-form Atanu Das, and he shot two very fine arrows in the first set to help his side take a 2-0 lead against Mighty Marathas.
The second set came down to the teams' recurve stars Dhiraj Bommadevara and Asian Games double gold medallist Kumkum Mohod, who both shot 9s with time winding down. In the third set, it was Kumkum’s turn to come up with a sensational 10 into the centre of the target face to tie the scores.
The fourth set saw both Bommadevara and Kumkum finish with 10s, but Aman Saini’s first arrow was upgraded from 9 to 10, and it gave the set points to the Marathas. Saini, in fact, finished the match with 60 out of 60 and then added the shootoff hit to his name as well.
"It's easy for me," Saini joked after the match when asked about the high-scoring night for him. "There is a process behind all this, a lot of hard work. It gives a lot of joy when results pay off for the team.”
In the second match, the Chola Chiefs struggled from the word go, and when they brought in their main recurve stars Deepika Kumari and Marcus D’Almeida as substitutes for the third set, the damage was already done, and they lost 1-5 against Royals.
Chiefs' woes were reflected in their scores in the first two sets, as they couldn’t get out the last arrow in time in the first set for 63, while the second set saw them score 69. The third set was, however, high quality with Kumari and D’Almeida stepping up, but Mete Gazoz nailed a 10 with his final arrow of the third set to hand an easy win for the defending champions.
The final match started with the possibility of Yodhas taking up the solitary lead in the league, but Knights – boosted by the return of Austrian compound star Nico Wiener – were on song to take a 4-0 lead. Even though Jyothi Surekha Vennam didn’t have the best of days, Wiener and the recurve archers – Neeraj Chauhan and Elia Canales – were able to close out the match 6-2 despite Yodhas fighting back in the third set.
Tuesday will mark the start of the second half of the league phase as things heat up in the race for semifinals. In the first match, in-form Chero Archers take on defending champions Rajputana Royals in what could potentially be a high-quality contest.
Prithviraaj Yodhas and Mighty Marathas will look to consolidate their position in the standings in the second match. The action will conclude with the Southern Derby when Kakatiya Knights go up against Chola Chiefs.
The Archery Premier League Season 2 is being broadcast on SonyLIV, Doordarshan, the Archery Association of India YouTube channel, and Archery+. Tickets are available on District by Zomato.
BEST ARCHERS OF THE DAY (Rs 1 lakh reward each):
Recurve male: Yashdeep Bhoge (Archers)
Recurve female: Elia Canales (Knights)
Compound male: Mathias Fullerton (Archers)
Compound female: Parneet Kaur (Marathas)
SCORES: DAY 5
Match 1: Mighty Marathas 4-4 (2-1) Chero Archers
Match 2: Rajputana Royals 5-1 Chola Chiefs
Match 3: Kakatiya Knights 6-2 Prithviraaj Yodhas
Source: IANS
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