Hyderabad, Oct 8 (IANS) Kakatiya Knights pulled off a remarkable comeback after a poor start as they stunned Mighty Marathas on the opening night of Archery Premier League Season 2 in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

On either side of the Knights’ comeback win, defending champions Rajputana Royals and Chero Archers registered wins in regulation time against Prithviraaj Yodhas and Chola Chiefs, respectively, as the second season got underway at the People’s Plaza on Necklace Road.

In the second match, Marathas suffered a remarkable collapse after opening their match by winning the first two sets, before losing the next two and then missing out in the shootoff against Kakatiya Knights. Nico Wiener and Neeraj Chauhan nailed the inner X-ring on the target face in the hit-or-miss shootout for Knights after the Marathas let slip a 4-0 advantage.

Marathas paid the price for substituting their main recurve man, Dhiraj Bommadevara, after the first two sets. Bommadevara, the Archery World Cup Final champion, was in tremendous form, shooting three 10s and a 9 with his four arrows, before the Marathas brought on Mrinal Chauhan, who struggled right through as Knights bounced back.

In the first match of the evening, Rajputana Royals laid down the marker early on in Archery Premier League’s second edition too as they beat Prithviraaj Yodhas 5-3 in a repeat of first season’s final.

With compound archers Ojas Deotale and world No. 1 Ella Gibson leading the way with high-scoring arrows at the start, Royals also had Tokyo Olympic recurve champion Mete Gazoz to thank, as he repeatedly closed out the sets with the 120-second countdown winding down.

The Abhishek Verma-led Yodhas bounced back from a slow start and could have taken the match into a hit-or-miss shootoff with the final arrow too, but Mexico’s Mathias Grande shot a costly 8 in the end.

The Archery Premier League (APL), the world’s first franchise-based archery league, is initiated by the Archery Association of India (AAI) 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 Royals won the first set 73-69, as Grande’s 7 with his first arrow put Yodhas on the back foot and playing catch-up. Deotale, who was the source of the Royals’ high energy just as he was last season, set the tone for the Royals along with Gibson, while India’s Ankita Bhakat played able support to Gazoz.

Verma started the second set with a 10 as it was a good start from all four archers, with the score tied 37-37 halfway through. Grande then bounced back with a sensational 10 off the final arrow with the clock winding down.

Gazoz could have won the set for Royals with a 10, but his 9 meant both teams would have split points for the set. But one of the arrows was corrected after the end of the set, which saw the Yodhas bounce back into the match to make it 2-2.

Before the third set, Yodhas made a change as Andrea Becerra came in to replace Raj Kaur. The compound stars of each team were on fire – Deotale and Verma started with superb X-ring 10s, then Gibson and Becerra followed that up with 10s too, as the teams were locked in a tight battle.

With their final arrows, Gazoz and Grande were both up against the clock but released the arrows in time. The Mexican had to hit a 10 to split the set, and he responded with just that for Yodhas. A really quality set was tied 77-77.

Royals started the fourth set superbly with three 10s and opened up a 39-37 lead halfway through to stand on the cusp of a win. Gatha Anandrao Khadake, 16, had an up-and-down match but shot a 10 with her final arrow to give her side a chance to force a shoot-off. While Gazoz managed a superb X with his final shot, Grande could manage only an 8.

In the third match, Chero Archers prevailed 5-3 against Chola Chiefs. The Archers took the first set, but Chiefs fought back to level the match at 2-2. Their star recurve archers – Marcus D’Almeida and Atanu Das – both shot 7s with the final arrows of the set.

But Chiefs had done enough earlier to take a low-scoring set 71-70. In the third set, Archers shot a superb 79 out of 80, and the Chiefs’ set was done even before the last arrow as they took a 4-2 lead in the match. In the final set, Chikitha Taniparthi and Rajat Chauhan couldn’t apply the early pressure on Archers as they dropped a couple of 9s. Archers, on the other hand, saw their compounds give the perfect start to their side. A 7 from Casey Kaufhold with the penultimate arrow made it tricky, but it didn’t matter in the end.

Marathas’ star Dhiraj, despite his cameo appearance in the match, was adjudged the best recurve archer of the day, while Royals’ Bhakat was the best female archer of the day. Among the compounds, Knights’ leader Wiener clinched the award after his stunning performance during the comeback victory, and Becerra walked away with the prize for female archer of the evening.

On the second day of action, the first match will feature Kakatiya Knights and Chola Chiefs. The defending champions Rajputana Royals would look to make it two wins out of two as they take on Chero Archers in the second match, and in the final encounter, Mighty Marathas will need to bounce back from their morale-crushing defeat when they take on Prithviraaj Yodhas.

SCORES: DAY 1

Match 1: Rajputana Royals 5-3 Prithviraaj Yodhas

Match 2: Kakatiya Knights 4-4 (2-0) Mighty Marathas

Match 3: Chero Archers 5-3 Chola Chiefs

–IANS

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