Rangareddy Raiders put up a fantastic allround performance against Gladwal Gladiators to win the first edition of Telangana Premier kabaddi tournament at the jam-packed Ambedkar indoor stadium, Karimnagar on Tuesday. In the grand finale, RR team rose to the ocassion, putting pressure on their opponents from the word go.
They played to a plan and were successful in getting Gadwal captain Mallikarjun, out thrice. Mallikarjun, who has been the hero of this meet was totally off colour yesterday. Malli, who was adjudged with the best raider of the championship (107 points) struggled to score for the first time. He was on the bench for almost 20 minutes in the match, which helped RR to score points at their will. Even Srikanth was not his usual as all his attempts were futile.
For RR, Muneesh, Srinivas and Uttam played a brilliant game of kabaddi as they succeeded in almost every effort they made. They never allowed the opponents to make any comeback, eventually winning the trophy quite comfortably. In the entire tournament, RR lost only once that too at the hands of Gadwal during the second league phase at this same venue.
Ameer of Rangareddy Raiders was adjudged the best defender award.
Honourable minister for finance Itala Rajender, G Kishan Reddy, BJP MLA and Jagadishwar Yadav (sec, TKA) graced the ocassion, giving away the prizes to the winners and runers-up.
The 16-day championship, in which eight teams played was conducted by Chintala Sports Pvt Ltd at two centres – Wrangal and Karimnagar.
At end of the tournament, Praveen Reddy, the director of the tournament thanked everyone for the wonderful support they got.
BY Sudeer Mahavaadi – DD Commentator
