Top 5 Raiders who stole the show in the 47th Junior National Kabaddi Championship!
47th Junior National Kabaddi Championship concluded few days back in Suryapet, Telangana. The premier national junior Kabaddi tournament saw 29 teams from Boys section and 28 teams from girls section fight it out for the crown. Sports Authority of India Boys' and Haryana Girls' went on to win the tournament similar to the 46th Junior National Kabaddi Championship. Let us go back and see who are the top 5 Raiders from the 47th Junior National Kabaddi Championship.
Check out player rankings from 47th Junior National Kabaddi Championship
* note: All points in this article are calculated from the Pre-Quarter Finals onward.
Meetu: SAI (52 Raid Points)
Meetu Sharma, the new age Kabaddi sensation, who's name has been making the rounds in the last 1 year. He has been having a dream year since we all saw him for the first time at 46th Junior Nationals at Rohtak where he scored a similar 52 points and became the highest scoring raider from the tournament.
In the 47th Junior National Kabaddi Championship, Meetu was again at his best and left no stone unturned. Scoring 52 points in 4 knockout matches for SAI and played an important role in SAI's victory in the tournament. Meetu's best performance came in the all important final against a good looking Uttar Pradesh. Meetu was at his best from the start as he scored a total of 22 points in the game out of 29 raids to successfully defend the Junior Nationals title for SAI. Something about Meetu and high pressure games! SAI went on to win the game easily with score of 51-27. Meetu also played a crucial role in the Semi Final and Quarter Final where he Piled up 12 and 14 points respectively against Haryana and Maharashtra.
All in All Meetu had a great Junior National 2021 where he again proved why he is such a good talent for Indian Kabaddi. It will be interesting to see how Meetu goes from here in 2021.
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Rohit Tomar: UP (41 Raid Points)
Rohit Tomar the lead raider from the runners-up team at the 47th Junior National Kabaddi Championship Uttar Pradesh was giving a tough for the opposition defenders as he finished at the 2nd best raider in the tournament. His performance was key to UP's performance in the Junior Natioanals 2021.
Rohit Tomar got a chance for the first time in last year's Junior Nationals in Rohtak but he did not score a point in the game. This time he was UP's lead raider in the tournament. His key performances in the 47th Junior National Kabaddi Championship came in the Quarter Final and Semi Final of the tournament where helped UP win those games. In the Quarter Finals against Punjab, Rohit was on song as he scored 16 raid points in the game to help UP beat Punjab with scores of 41-36. In the Semis against Tamil Nadu again Rohit was at his best as he finished the match as the best raider to help UP get past Tamil Nadu with scores reading 58-33. In the finals of tournament Rohit was not able to deliver his best as he could score only 8 points out of 19 raids.
But he did have a tournament to remember and it will be interesting to see more of Rohit in other upcoming tournaments.
Ram Kumar: Tamil Nadu (29 Raid Points)
Ram Kumar from Tamil Nadu had a tournament to remember and helped Tamil Nadu progress in the tournament. He scored 29 points in the 3 matches he played in the knockouts. This year Tamil Nadu made it to the semi final which was a big bonus from last year's pre-quarters exit. Ram Kumar played a big role in TN's performance at the 47th Junior National Kabaddi Championship.
Ram Kumar had a great game in Pre-Quarters against Goa where he scored 10 raid points to help Tamil Nadu beat Goa in a thrilling encounter where the scores read 35-34. In the Quarter Finals against Himachal Pradesh, he was again the lead raider who scored points for Tamil Nadu and helped them avenge their last year Pre-Quarters exit against Himachal Pradesh. In the Semi Finals against Uttar Pradesh, Ram Kumar scored 11 points but there was no support from his team mates as Tamil Nadu bowed out of the 47th Junior National Kabaddi Championship.
Ram Kumar's performances will be remembered for the days to come as this boy from Tamil Nadu has got it all to go to the next level and bring similar kind of performances.
Rakesh: Chandigarh (27 Raid Points)
Rakesh the lead raider from Chandigarh is placed 4th in the top 5 raiders list from the 47th Junior National Kabaddi Championship. He had a great tournament which also helped Chandigarh's progress, In the two knockout games Rakesh scored 27 raid points for his team. Rakesh was also seen playing for Chandigarh in the 46th Junior National Kabaddi Championship where he scored 12 points for his team.
The best performance of Rakesh came in the Pre Quarters match against Gujarat where he pilled up a whooping 18 points in the game to help Chandigarh Trash Gujarat with scores of 58-32. In that match Rakesh remained on mat for 85% of time which is astonishing. In the Quarter Finals against Haryana he scored 9 raid points but Haryana got the better of Chandigarh and moved ahead in the tournament.
The match where Rakesh scored 18 points was just a glimpse of what he can do on the Kabaddi mat, going forward we hope to see more of Rakesh taking on defenders like he did in the Junior Nationals 2021.
Sushil OM: SAI (26 Raid Points)
Another SAI Raider making the top 5 list of best Raiders of 47th Junior National Kabaddi Championship. Sushil OM is placed 5th in this list with 26 raid points to his name in the four knockout games he played in the tournament with 15 effective points.
Sushil OM played the perfect 2nd raider to Meetu Sharma for SAI as these two raiders stole the show for their team and helped them win the 47th Junior National Kabaddi championship. Sushil in the Pre-Quarters encounter against Andhra did not have much to do as he went only for four raids and scored three points in that game. His best performance came in the Semi-Final encounter against Haryana where he scored 12 points in 15 raids to help SAI to make it to the final. In the finals he was able to score only 6 points as Meetu was doing all work and scoring points at will. It is indeed a tough ask to be a second raider when you have Meetu as your team's first raider!
Sushil OM had a good Junior National and played his best as the 2nd raider for his team SAI. We will have to wait and watch if Sushil has the potential to play the lead raider's role for his team going forward.
RE-Live the Finals from the 47th Junior National Kabaddi Championship
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