Ultimate Kho Kho: Yoddhas take on Warriors, Giants meet Juggernauts

Both matches will be telecasted from 7 pm onwards.

Following spectacular victories in their opening matches, Telugu Yoddhas and Gujarat Giants will look to capitalise onto the winning starts when they play their second matches of the Inaugural edition of Ultimate Kho Kho on Tuesday.

With India’s first-ever franchise-based Kho-Kho league taking off in a packed stadium at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Mahalunge, Pune, Maharashtra on Sunday, Gujarat Giants beat Mumbai Khiladis by 25 points in the league opener. Whereas Telugu Yoddhas notched-up a thrilling 10-point win over Chennai Quick Guns in the second match of the opening day.

Gujarat Giants will face Odisha Juggernauts in their second match of the league tomorrow.

“It’s good to get a winning start to the league. We will watch the Odisha Juggernauts’ match today and analyse them. We will make a strategy accordingly so that we take advantage of our strengths and work on weaknesses. I believe the fitness level of my team is good and because of that they played really well in the second innings against Mumbai Khiladis. We had a plan in place for each batch and that worked well for us,” Gujarat Giants coach Sanjeev Sharma said.

Despite 2-22 down at the end of the opening turn, Gujarat Giants made an impressive comeback to complete a 69-44 win.  Telugu Yoddhas, on the other hand, will look to add three more points when they lock horns with Rajasthan Warriors in their second league game.

“Team performed really well both in the attack as well as in defence. Deepak Madhav and Arun Gunki were standout performers for us while Avdhut Patil and Pratik [Waikar] bhaiya also contributed in the crucial time with their all-round shows. It was a great win. Though there were few fouls in the attack, bonus points helped us to clinch an easy win. We will look to avoid making fouls against Rajasthan Warriors in the next match and score maximum points through bonus,” said Telugu Yoddhas skipper Prajwal KH.

On Monday, Rajasthan Warriors and Odisha Juggernauts will begin their campaigns as they will take on Mumbai Khiladis and Chennai Quick Guns in their respective opening encounters.

Ultimate Kho Kho is promoted by Amit Burman in collaboration with the Kho Kho Federation of India.

Ultimate Kho Kho will be telecasted live in five languages on Sony Sports Network—SONY TEN 1 (English), SONY TEN 3 (Hindi & Marathi) SONY TEN 4 (Telugu & Tamil) as well as streamed live on SonyLIV.

All the teams will play twice against each other twice during the league stage with Top-4 teams progressing into knockout stage, which will be played in playoffs format.

There will be two matches played each day with live coverage starting at 7:00 PM IST.

The GMR Group owned franchisee, Telugu Yoddhas are all set to lock horns with Rajasthan Warriors in their second game of the inaugural season of Ultimate Kho-Kho at Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Pune on 16th August 2022. Telugu Yoddhas in their opening game kicked-off their campaign in style by crushing their neighbor state-based team, Chennai Quick Guns 48-38. With this dominating win, Telugu Yoddhas are placed 2nd on points table with 3 points to their kitty. The 5th match of the inaugural Ultimate Kho Kho between Telugu Yoddhas and Rajasthan Warriors will be broadcast LIVE & Exclusive on the Sony Sports Network & Live streamed on the SonyLIV platform on 16th August, 2022 (Tuesday), 7:30 PM onwards.

Telugu Yoddhas displayed exemplary agility and acrobatic skills in their first match of the opening day at the inaugural Ultimate Kho Kho season. A strategic approach with a beautiful mix of youth and experience showcased the Yoddhas impressive abilities and performance on the mat against Chennai Quick Guns. Telugu Yoddhas who started on the attack did not waste anytime in getting the scoreboard moving as their attackers gathered big points from the early minutes of the game. In this format of Kho Kho where defenders also can win points, unlike the traditional form of the sport, the defenders of the Yoddhas used it to their benefit and raked in some crucial points against Chennai Quick Guns to create a comfortable lead early on in the game.

Sumit Bhatia, Head Coach, Telugu Yoddhas, said “I’m happy with the performance of my team from the last match. We are putting in a lot of efforts and hard work in our practice sessions and I am confident that this hard work will pay off. I am looking forward for our next match while also knowing that the win from the last match is the past and in this sport we cannot bask over past glories. I am hopeful we will be able to maintain the smile and our momentum in our next game against Rajasthan Warriors.”

Vice-captain and the winner of ‘Ultimate Kho of the Match’ in the last game, all-rounder Pratik Waikar will play a critical role in making the scoreboard move for the Telugu Yoddhas, along with Arun Ashok who also won the Best Attacker of the match yesterday. Amongst the defenders, it will be interesting to watch Deepak Madhav winner of the ‘Best Defender’ award last night, who made Chennai Quick Guns sweat yesterday with his breath taking 1 minute 58 seconds of running while earning 2 crucial ‘Dream Run’ points. Along with them, Avdhut Patil (defender) and captain, Prajawal KH (attacker) would be the other players in the Telugu Yoddha squad that could cause possible trouble for the Rajasthan Warriors.

For the Rajasthan Warriors who will also be playing their second game tomorrow, some players like Abhijit Patil, Dilrajsing Sengar and Sushant Dattatray who were picked from category A players on the draft, could be a possible threat for Telugu Yoddhas. Akshay Prashant Ganpule, Hrushikesh Vijay Murchavadeers will be the other players from the Rajasthan Warriors squad to be watched out for in the encounter tomorrow.