Punjab Royals thrash Haryana Hammers in PWL

With both teams already qualified for the semi-finals, the contest on Tuesday evening witnessed the upset of the tournament with Punjab icon player Geeta Phogat defeating 2015 World Champion Oksana Herhel 8-6 in the women’s 58kg category.

 Oksana, who clinched the highest bid in the PWL auction, was in for a shock as the Indian scored the first point of the bout with the referee penalising the Ukrainian for passivity. The World Champion almost quickly regained her prowess to almost finish off the bout with an expert takedown to put the Indian on the mat. Geeta was saved by the clock as the referee ended the round saving her from a defeat by pin.

The second round proved to be a different story altogether as the Indian raced out to lead the bout 5-2 with successive takedowns. With time running out, the World Champion pulled a rabbit out of the hat by executing a takedown to go into the lead. However, the last seconds provided the biggest twist of the tournament as the Indian again put the Ukrainian on the mat to register an 8-6 victory.

With the match already in favour of the Punjab Royals team, Haryana Hammers icon player Yogeshwar Dutt came to the mat to face Rajneesh in the final bout of the day. Rajneesh started the match on a positive note by a takedown to lead the Olympic bronze medallist in the men’s 65kg category. The Asian games gold medallist quickly regained her composure with a classic leg tackle to level things up. Yogeshwar added three more points to his tally before the end of the first round with another takedown.

The second round also swung in favour of the veteran Yogeshwar as the referee penalised Rajneesh for passivity. As the clock ticked down, Yogeshwar registered his fourth consecutive victory of the tournament with a 6-3 score line.

The PWL now moves to the Bengaluru leg with home team Bengaluru Yodhas taking on Dilli Veer at the Koramangala indoor stadium in Bangalore on Wednesday.

Brief Scores:

Haryana Hammers 2–5 Punjab Royals (in order of bout)

1. Hitender 0-4 Jargalsaikhany Chuluunbat (M 125kg)

2. Nirmal Devi 6-3 Yana Rattigan (W 48kg)

3. Nitin Rathee 1-6 Vladimer Khinchegashvili (M 57kg)

4. Oksana Herhel 6-8 Geeta Phogat (W 58kg)

5. Yuri Maier 1-12 Mausam Khatri (M 97kg)

6. Geetika Jakhar 0-7 Vasilisa Marzaliuk (W 69kg)

7. Yogeshwar Dutt 6-3 Rajneesh (M 65kg)

Blocked Categories: M 74kg, W 53kg