Day 15 of the inaugural Pro Wrestling League was a clash between teams at the right end of the table as Haryana Hammers took on the thus far undefeated Revanta’s Mumbai Garuda.
With their Icon player Jogeshwar Dutt not in action, the auction’s most expensive player Oksana Herhel was the stand-in captain for the day as the Haryana Hammers blocked out the Women’s 53Kg category as opposed to the Men’s 65 Kg category chosen by the Mumbai outfit’s captain and Icon player Adeline Grey.
Up first to set the ball rolling was 21 year old Rahul Aware representing the Mumbai Garuda against Nitin Rathee of the Haryana Hammers in the Men’s 57 Kg weightclass. It was Aware that opened the scoring after taking a 1-0 lead to close out the first round in what was an otherwise uneventful and cautious start to the bout.
Nitin Rathee betrayed early intent in the second round to take Aware’s back right off the restart but was almost immediately reversed by the youngster who restored his 1 point lead. Aware did not stop there as he countered Rathee’s attempted takedown twice more to take a 7-2 lead and draw first blood for the Mumbai Garuda on the night.
The second match-up of the night in the women’s 58Kg category featured the tournament’s most expensive player and Haryana Hammer’s captain for the day and Gold Medalist in the 2015 World Championships, Oksana Herhel, pitting her skill against Sakshi Malik of the Mumbai Garuda.
Expectedly, it was Oksana Herhel who shot out of the blocks, capitalizing on Sakshi’s early tentativeness by racing to a 4-0 lead. The remainder of the round was seen out with neither grappler willing to commit forward and the scoreline still intact.
The second round was contested in similar fashion, with both wrestlers displaying impressive defensive skills and upper body strength. Despite Sakshi’s best attempts, she could not manage to close the gap as Herhel took the second bout 4-2 to tie up the overall scores at 1-1.
The men’s 74 Kg category was next in line as Cuban Livan Lopez Azcuy stepped up for the Haryana Hammers against Pradeep of the Mumbai Garuda. After patiently probing for an opening, Livan Lopez burst into life as he lifted Pradeep and took his back to stack up 4 points off one takedown to close out the first round at 4-0.
As Pradeep grafted to find a way back into the match in the second round, Lopez capitalized on his opponent’s momentum and brilliantly took him down again to take an unassailable 9-0 lead. It only took a further few seconds for Lopez to take Pradeep’s back yet again as he brought about an early end to proceedings with an 11-0 victory via technical superiority.
Adeline Gray, captain and Icon player of the Mumbai Garuda was looking to drag her team back to parity in the overall scores as she took to the mat against Geetika Jakhar of the Haryana Hammers, who were leading 2-1 going into the 4th bout of the night.
Despite being met with resolute defence from Geetika, who looked like she was reluctant to even engage with the American, Adeline Grey did manage to take her opponent to the mat once to edge out the first round 3-0.
The second round began much in the same vein as Geetika seemed content to play defence, but the reach advantage of Grey eventually paid dividends as she took her down masterfully with a leg trip and rolled over to take a commanding 7-1 lead and draw Mumbai Garuda level with the Haryana Hammers at 2-2 heading into the 5th bout.
The men’s 125Kg category was up next as Hitender Kumar representing the Haryana Hammers went up against the Georgian, Giorgi Sakandrlipze, donning the Mumbai Garuda’s colours.
The Georgian who had dispatched of Krishan Kumar in his previous bout in record time, took a little longer but still managed to outclass Hitender Kumar within the time limit of the first round, as he repeatedly took his opponent’s back and rolled through en route to a dominant 10-0 victory via technical superiority to give Mumbai Garuda an edge with an overall lead of 3-2.
The penultimate bout of the night that featured the women’s 48Kg weightclass saw all the pressure fall on the shoulders of veteran Nirmal Devi of the Haryana Hammers, who was pitted against youngster Ritu Phogat of the Mumbai Garuda.
Despite the Phogat sister opening the scoring, Nirmal Devi closed out the round strongly after taking advantage of her opponent’s false move and taking her back, to lead narrowly 2-1 going into the break.
Not to be outdone, Ritu Phogat started the second round with intent and took Nirmal Devi down with a single leg to overturn the deficit and establish a 5-3 lead of her own. Although Nirmal Devi fought back to cut the lead to a single point, Ritu Phogat held on to emerge victorious with a scoreline of 5-4 and render the final bout a mere formality after giving Mumbai Garuda an unassailable overall lead of 4-2.
The seventh and final match-up of the night was an all-foreign affair in the Men’s 97 Kg category as undefeated Georgian Odikadze Elizbar representing the already victorious Mumbai Garuda stood opposite Ukranian Andriytsev Valeriy of the Haryana Hammers.
The first round clocked out without much fuss as both men were unwilling to commit a mistake, with Valeriy heading into the break with a slender 1-0 lead thanks to his opponent’s passivity.
Despite greater intent from both grapplers in the second round, the action was still rather muted thanks to the stellar defensive capabilities that both of them displayed in not allowing the other one an inch to capitalize upon.
The final bout duly attained completion with Valeriy edging out Elizbar with a score of 2-1 to end the Haryana Hammer’s night on a consolatory note having cut the Mumbai’s overall lead to just one point.
Despite the late effort by the Haryana Hammers, the Revanta Mumbai Garuda took the honours on the night with a scoreline of 4-3 to remain undefeated in the group stages, with their position at the top of the table still intact as well.
