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After winning the toss, Vladimir Khinchegashvili, the captain of the CDR Punjab Royals locked out the 48Kg women’s category while the captain of the UP Warriors, Babita Kumari, locked out the men’s 57kg category to block out these two weight-classes and set the proceedings in motion.
The first match-up saw an interesting confrontation between Rajneesh from the Punjab team and Ganzorig Mandakhnran from the UP Warriors representing the men’s 65Kg weightclass.
After jostling for position early, that saw Rajneesh repeatedly slap his opponent on the head and elicit a warning from the referee, it was the Mongol who made inroads with incessant pressure and scored 2 points in quick succession for UP Warriors by forcing the Indian out of bounds towards the end of the round.
Round 2 was started in a more explosive fashion with the Indian quickly changing levels and attacking his opponent’s legs and transitioning to his back to race to a 4-2 lead. The lead was further extended by 4 points when the Indian kept effectively countering Ganzorig’s attampts to get back into the match.
However not to be outdone, the Mongolian also went for all out attack as he caught out Rajneesh to pull the scores back to within 2. With the clock ticking down however, it was Rajneesh who held on to the lead and sealed the narrow win by 8 points to 7 to give CDR Punjab Royals the early advantage after the first bout.
A great start to the day’s proceedings with a bout that burst into life in the second round after a first round that saw both wrestlers test out the waters in cautious fashion.
The next match-up, in the women’s 69 Kg category, saw Vasilisa Marzaliuk from Belarus representing the CDR Punjab Royals taking on Ukranian gold medalist in the 2015 World Championships, Alina Stadinik Makhinia for the UP franchise.
The first round saw Marzaliuk take an 2-0 lead after countering her opponent’s attacking intent twice to pin her onto the mat, and the story of the fight remained the same in the second round with the Ukranian pushing the pace and Marzaliuk happy to counter her.
Despite pulling 1 point back for the UP franchise in the second round, the CDR Punjab wrestler held out with masterful defence for the eventual victory by a scoreline of 2-1.
The home support that had packed into the staduim was also understandably delighted to see their team lead 2-0 after the completion of 2 bouts.
Match 3 was for the men’s 74Kg weightclass, and saw Praveen Rana pitted against Mongolian Purevjav Unurbat as the Punjab Royals looked to extend their streak of victories to 3 and assume a strong position on the night.
Praveen Rana started brightly, going after Unurbat’s legs and eventually taking his back to open his account with a 2-0 early lead. The remainder of the round though saw neither wrestler willing to give up position and open themself up to a counter, thus closing out the round with a 2-0 scoreline to the CDR Punjab Royals.
Round 2 started off with Praveen Rana going for Unurbat’s legs, that saw the Mongolian counter his advance and pin him to tie the scores up at 2-2. As quickly as that had happened, he once again rolled expertly and scored another 2 points to take a 4-2 lead for UP.
Riding on the boisterous support from the home fans however, Rana faked a level change beautifully to trap Unurbat and tie the match up at 4-4 with just about a minute to go and closed out the third bout in favour of the home team yet again by virture of scoring most points of his tackle, to help the CDR Punjab Royals into a 3-0 lead after 3 matches.
The fourth match-up was contested by wrestlers belonging to the 125kg category, with the Jargalsaikhan Chuluunbat representing the home team and 2013 Commonwealth Games Gold medalist Joginder Kumar from India taking to the mat for the UP Warriors.
As always, a heavyweight contest promised much action as Chuluunbat went for Joginder’s legs almost right off the bat and secured an early 2-0 lead for the home team. As quickly as he had taken a 2-0 lead, with Joginder chasing the match, the Mongolian took the resulting openings that were offered and took the Indian’s back and rolled through thrice while maintaining position to cement a commanding 8-0 lead, all in the first round.
The lead was further extended to 10-0, and the contest called to an end, thanks to 2 technical faults by the Indian who in all fairness, was ragdolled by the CDR Punjab representative to grant the home team an unassailable 4-0 lead in a 7 match contest on the night.
The 5th bout of the night featured CDR Punjab’s icon player and India’s first woman Olympian Geeta Phogat matched up against 21 year old Sarita in the women’s 58 Kg category. With Punjab already racing to a 4-0 lead, all the pressure was on Sarita to pull off the unthinkable and dent the momentum of the home team.
After some early jostling for position, that saw the crowd resoundingly get behind Geeta Phogat, it was Sarita who took the surprise 2-0 lead after defending Geeta’s advances astutely and manoeuvering the veteran out of bounds.
With an upset on the offing, the wrestlers took to the mat for round 2 with Sarita looking the more lively of the two in the initial minute. However the nous of the veteran proved too much for the youngster Sarita as Geeta Phogat beautifully turned a disadvantageous position into a scoring opportunity and tied the scores up before taking a 3-2 lead after eliciting a technical fault from her opponent.
With Sarita pushing the pace in an attempt to regain the lead, all that the CDR Punjab Royal captain and Icon player had to do was ride out the pressure and seal the win, proving that she is still India’s premier women wrestler in the process with an impressive comeback win to underline the home team’s dominance by winning 5 consecutive bouts on the trot.
Bout 6 saw 2 cousin sisters pitted against each other as Priyanka Phogat went up against the UP Warriors captain Babita Kumari, who had a point to prove after the trouncing that her team was taking on the day. A 2014 Commonwealth Games Gold Medalist, the odds were stacked heavily in the favour of the more experienced Babita as the match-up got on the way.
It took around 2 minutes of grappling and nullifying each other’s advances before Babita took her cousin’s back and put UP into a 2-0 lead, but it was shortlived as Priyanka bounced back almost immediately by pressuring Babita out of bounds to tie up the score at 2-2 going into the break.
The early stages of Round 2 saw more of the same, with both wrestlers obviously highly familiar with each other’s game and cancelling each other out. However Babita’s experience eventually shone through as she managed to keep her opponent down to take a 4-2 lead which was surprisingly and almost immediately struck out by Priyanka as the match looked set to be drawn at 4-4 heading into the final seconds.
However Babita’s doggedness proved to be decisive in the dying seconds as she scored the winning points to eke out a 6-4 victory in a closely fought match-up, giving the UP Warriors their first victory, although merely consolatory, of the night.
The final match got on the way with the lopsided score reading 5-1 in favour of the CDR Punjab Royals, and was little more than an opportunity for the UP Warriors to salvage some pride after being practically run over by the home team.
The men’s 97Kg category match-up saw two Indians do battle as Mausam Khatri representing the Punjab Royals faced off against Commonwealth Games 2014 Silver Medalist Satyavrat Kadian who was fighting for little more than proving a point.
After the initial lock-up saw both fighters unwilling to give up position or make a false move, Khatri took the early lead after tripping up his opponent and taking his back, giving the home team a 2-0 lead, before winding down the clock in round 1 to head into the break with the advantage.
Round 2 saw Satyavrat come out the more aggressive and shoot for Khatri’s legs, but was unsuccessful in doing so. In a match that featured a lot of head slapping, Satyavrat was fined 1 point for continuing to do so despite warnings from the referee thus making the score 3-0 in favour of Khatri and the Punjab team.
Chasing a deficit of 3 points, Satyavrat shot again for his opponent’s legs but was reversed masterfully by a waiting Mausam Khatri who countered his attack and sealed the win with a 5-0 score, to help the CDR Punjab Royals to a resounding 6-1 trashing of the UP Warriors on the night.
