APL Season 2: Mighty Marathas beats Chero Archers in tie-breaker; Kakatiya Knights stuns Prithviraj Yoddhas

Dhiraj Bommadevara (c) and Aman Saini helped Mighty Marathas defeat Chero Archers in the opening match. | Photo Credit: APL

Hyderabad

Mighty Marathas came from behind to beat Chero Archers in thrilling fashion in the opening clash of Archery Premier League season 2 at People’s Plaza on Monday.

Archers in trademark fashion started strong to take the first set. But there was little to separate the two teams in the second and third sets, and the points were split. The final set was also a high-scoring affair and it needed a double check of where the arrows landed before Marathas levelled the scores and took the proceedings into a hit-or-miss shootoff.

Aman Saini and Dhiraj Bommadevara nailed their arrows into the yellow ring. Mathias Fullerton was the only one to do the same for Archers, giving Marathas a 2-1 win via the tiebreaker.

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Later, the Chola Chiefs struggled from the get go. Such were its woes that it couldn’t even get out the last arrow in time, and they could fare only marginally better in the second set.

Chiefs substituted in Deepika Kumari and Marcus D’Almeida for the third set, but the damage was already done by then. While Deepika and Marcus stepped up, Mete Gazoz nailed a 10 with his final arrow to hand defending champion Rajputana Royals an easy win.

Prithviraj Yoddhas’ bid to go to the top of the table was spoiled by Kakatiya Knights. Nico Wiener, back in the team, was on song and Knights raced to a 4-0 lead. Despite Jyothi Surekha Vennam having a rare off day, Nico, Neeraj Chauhan and Elia Canales did enough in the final set to seal the contest.