On Thursday at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Cuttack, the defending champion Odisha Juggernauts will look to continue their remarkable run when they play the Gujarat Giants in the first semifinal of Ultimate Kho Kho Season 2. For the past five games, the Odisha Juggernauts have not lost and have won several of them handily. They beat the Telugu Yoddhas on Sunday, 35-27, and it was very impressive. When it counted, players like Dilip Khandavi, Gowtham MK, and one of the best Wazirs this season, Deepak Sahoo, all came through. Additionally, they will enjoy the benefit of performing in front of their raucous home crowd, who has been a great source of encouragement throughout the season.
Nonetheless, they take on the Gujarat Giants, a team that easily defeated them in the league stages. The Odisha Juggernauts will not be underestimating their opponents heading into Thursday’s match, even though they did get their retribution in the rematch. According to UKK, captain of the Odisha Juggernauts Dipesh More stated, “I am looking forward to that match.” “Gujarat Giants are a good team, but we are also very confident as we won the last game against them.”
It feels great to play in front of our home supporters because we are thrilled with the enthusiastic reception we are receiving. This gives us an additional advantage in our style of play. We are taking things one step at a time and are not under any pressure. We want to win the semifinals first, then we’ll consider the finals,” Dipesh continued. The Gujarat Giants will try to stop a concerning decline in performance in the interim. They have only won two of their last five games, which is a significant drop after they appeared unbeatable in the early going of the competition. While some players, like Rajvardhan Patil, P Narasayya, and Sanket Kadam, have shown promise in spurts, the team as a whole needs to pull together and contribute.
It will be a high-stakes game against the formidable Odisha Juggernauts, and we are currently formulating our next match strategy. We understand that we will be playing against the crowd, but we are prepared to give it our all. The Gujarat Giants’ captain, Akshay, stated, “Our focus is on both recovery and training. We are working on our weaknesses and also doing video analysis on our opponent teams.”
