Hyderabad, Oct 12 Mighty Marathas came from behind to script a thrilling shoot-off victory over in-form Chero Archers in the Archery Premier League here on Monday, extending their winning streak to three matches.
Aman Saini and Dhiraj Bommadevara hit the yellow ring in the APL’s signature hit-or-miss shoot-off, while compound world No. 1 Mathias Fullerton was the only Chero archer to score a hit. The Marathas won the tie-breaker 2-1 after the teams were locked 4-4 in regulation time.
Chero, who have now lost two matches in shoot-offs this season, started strongly to take the opening set. However, in what turned out to be a high-quality display of archery, the second and third sets were split between the two sides.
The high-scoring fourth set went down to the wire, but after a few tense moments as officials checked the final scores of a couple of closely contested arrows, it went the Marathas’ way, forcing the match into a shoot-off.
Mighty Marathas, after starting the season with two defeats, have now registered three consecutive wins to draw level with Chero on six points.
For Chero, Yashdeep Bhoge was named in place of the in-form Atanu Das and shot two fine arrows in the opening set to help his team take a 2-0 lead.
The second set came down to the teams’ recurve stars, Bommadevara and Asian Games double gold medallist Kumkum Mohod, who both shot 9s with time running out. In the third set, Kumkum produced a sensational 10 in the centre of the target to level the scores.
In the fourth set, both Bommadevara and Kumkum finished with 10s, but Saini’s first arrow was upgraded from 9 to 10, giving the Marathas the set points.
Saini finished the match with a perfect score of 60 out of 60 before adding a shoot-off hit to his tally.
(PTI News)
