The inaugural edition of the Pro Wrestling League kicked off at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Sports Complex in Delhi today, with the Mumbai Garuda coming from behind to defeat the Punjab Royals by a 5-2 margin in front of a passionate crowd who cheered aloud on every grapple and reversal. The Mumbai side, led by reigning World Champion and World number one Adeline Gray, made an auspicious start to their campaign with a win and are in a good position to make a bid for the semifinal places.
It was just the first day of the tournament and there was no shortage of controversy! Sparks were flying all over the place in the penultimate round when Punjab’s icon player Geeta Phogat faced off against Mumbai’s Sakshi Malik in an all-Indian bout. With the scores at 3-2 in favour to Mumbai, the onus was on Phogat to use her experience and strength to bring her team level.
However, it was Malik who came out firing on all cylinders as she raced to a 4-0 lead at the end of the first round after an unsuccesful challenge by the Punjab Royals coaching staff. Phogat, who won India's first ever gold medal in women's wrestling in the 55 kg freestyle category at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, was taken aback by the fight shown by her opponent and needed to dig deep in order to overturn the deficit.
She came back determined in the second round and quickly reduced the deficit to 4-2. After a few seconds of grappling, Malik charged at Phogat, gripped her right leg and proceeded to pin her down, to which Phogat replied with what looked like a stunning reversal and two points to the Punjab Royals wrestler. The referee raised his fingers and the score became 4-4, following which the decision was challenged by the Mumbai coach with the customary throw of the brick.
After much deliberation and delay, the decision was overturned and instead, four points were awarded to Malik for her manouvre and the score was now 8-2 in her favour. A visibly incensed Phogat came back harder and threw the kitchen sink at her opponent. She huffed and puffed and managed to tie up the game at 8-8 at the final whistle, but it was Malik who was awarded the win on account of technical superiority.
In the post-match press conference, the Mumbai coach as well as Sakshi Malik expressed their displeasure at the time taken by the officials to judge the challenge in the second half. The officials took over five minutes to make the call before awarding the points to Malik, but she lamented how it disturbed her rhythm and concentration, which prompted Phogat to take the scoreline to 8-8 from 8-2 in a matter of seconds.
However, the coach of the Garuda said that the challenge system is an essential part of wrestling and should be used as much as possible, but was unhappy at the delay which almost cost his team the bout. He also said that he was confident of making the semifinals and has already started planning for them.
