Mallesh Gangadhari once again led by example as Karimnagar Kings scored a fine victory over Siddipet Staliions to keep their semifinal chances alive in the ongoing Telangana Premier Kabaddi tournament. The second and final phase of the first edition, organised by Chintala Sports Organisation began at the Ambedkar indoor stadium Karimnagar on Thursday.
It was an interesting tussle between the two teams and it was in the last five minutes the local team showed superb skills to the delight of huge gathering here. With a few raids play left the difference was not much as both the teams fought tooth and nail.
But the Kings captain Mallesh, who has a huge fan following here rose to the ocassion with some superb raids. In the closing stages when they were in danger of being all out made a couple of super raids, which helped them maintain slender lead. Gouri Shankar, who missed couple of matches at Warangal also played a good supportive role, although he was not at his best yesterday.
For Stallions, Supriyo was the top-scorer, despite not showing his usual great skills. Stallions, who also enjoyed good lead at the half time made so many mistakes in the second half. They hurried through some tackles when there was no necessity and lost the momentum. Jeevagopal’s absence in defense was clearly visible in the match as the Stallions right corner was fairly weak.
Now Karimnagar will meet Gadwal Gladiators in their final league encounter and the team which wins will make it to the last four.
Earlier, in the first match of the second phase, Gadwal overcame the in form Rangareddy Raiders, with captain Mallikarjun being the hero once again. RR, without Selvamani were totally off colour as there was tremendous pressure on Muneesh. There times there were allout is in an indication of how they struggled yesterday in all departments. It was the first loss for Rangareddy Raiders, who are already in the last four.
BY Sudeer Mahavaadi – DD Commentator
