Mumbai Garuda defeats Punjab Royals in PWL opener
Revanta’s Mumbai Garuda defeated CDR Punjab Royals 5-2 in the opening match of the Pro Wrestling League (PWL) at the KD Jadhav stadium in New Delhi on Thursday. In the best of seven bouts format, Sakshi Malik’s victory over Punjab captain Geeta Phogat in the women’s 58kg turned out to be the difference as she defeated her much-fancied opponent in a tight fight.
After winning the toss, CDR Punjab Royals captain Geeta Phogat blocked out the 65kg Men’s category before Mumbai captain Adeline Gray blocked the 48kg Women’s category to select the seven bouts. (Read: Our complete guide on Pro Wrestling League)
In the first bout of the day, Rahul Aware of Revanta’s Mumbai Garuda took on CDR Punjab Royals’ Vladimir Khinchegashvili from Georgia in the 57kg Men’s category. The reigning World champion Vladimir Khinchegashvili started the match in a good position by trapping Aware to earn two points. The Georgian doubled his points in the second round with a leg trap against the Indian wrestler. The World champion added two more points in the dying seconds to earn CDR Punjab Royals a 6-0 win in the opening bout.
Odunayo Adekuoroye from Nigeria representing Revanta’s Mumbai Garuda took on CDR Punjab Royals’ Priyanka Phogat in the 53kg women’s category. The second bout proved to be a one-sided affair as Odunayo climbed to a 4-2 lead in the first round. The Nigerian doubled her points in the second round to go 8-2 up in the match. Odunayo made it 1-1 between Punjab and Mumbai after two bouts as she won the bout 10-2 against the Indian wrestler.
The third bout of the day turned out to be a match-up between Indian wrestlers as CDR Punjab Royals’ Parveen Rana took on Pardeep of Revanta’s Mumbai Garuda in the Men’s 74kg category. Pardeep dominated the early proceedings by notching up a 3-1 lead in the first round by pushing Parveen Rana out of the mat.
Parveen Rana came back with a bang in the second round by taking four points with a roll by holding the leg to lead 5-3. The bout came back to level terms in the dying seconds with Pardeep pushing his Indian compatriot out of the mat. With the bout tied at 5-5 at the end of the second round, the bout was awarded to Parveen Rana for scoring the higher number of points.
Mumbai’s captain and icon player Adeline Gray, who is also a three-time World champion in 69kg women’s category, fought against Punjab’s Vasilisa Marzaliuk from Bulgaria in the fourth bout of the day. The World champion showed her prowess from the word go as she dominated the Bulgarian in the opening round to lead the bout 6-1. With Mumbai trailing 1-2 in the match, Adeline Gray showed real determination in the second round to win the bout 10-1 and take her team back to level terms with Punjab.
Mausam Khatri of Punjab took on Georgian E Odikadze of Mumbai in the Men’s 97kg category. Odikadze raced to a 5-0 lead in the first round with Khatri unable to cope up with the movements of the Georgian. The Indian showed fighting spirit in the second round to notch up two points on the board. However, the Georgian wrestler increased his lead to 6-2 in the dying moments to earn Mumbai’s third victory of the day.
In the crucial sixth bout of the day, Punjab’s captain and icon player Geeta Phogat took on Sakshi Malik of Mumbai in the 58kg women’s category to bring Punjab back into the match. However, Sakshi Malik put in a surprise performance in the first round as she notched up four points against her Indian compatriot.
Geeta Phogat came back in the second round with a brilliant performance to level the game at 4-4. The see-saw battle took another turn with Sakshi Malik doubling her points tally to eight and a last-ditch effort by Geeta levelled the game at 8-8 in the dying seconds. However, the bout was awarded to Sakshi Malik for technical superiority to register the first upset of the league.
Mumbai confirmed their victory in the opening match with one bout left to go by taking an unassailable 4-2 lead.
In the last bout of the day, Mumbai’s Levan Berianidze took on Jargalsaikhan Chuluunbat in the Men’s 125 kg category. Levan Berianidze defeated Jargalsaikhan 2-1 to round off Mumbai’s perfect day as they registered a 5-2 victory in the opening match.
In the second match of PWL, Virat Kohli’s Bengaluru Yodhas will take on Rohit Sharma’s UP Warriors at the KD Jadhav stadium in New Delhi on Friday. Â