Yogeshwar Dutt the hero as Haryana Hammers beat Bengaluru Yodhas
Yogeshwar Dutt defeated his protégé Bajrang Punia 3-2 in a tight contest to lead Haryana Hammers to their second win of the tournament in Gurgaon on Wednesday. The Olympic medallist proved to be the difference between the two teams as Bengaluru suffered a 3-4 defeat.
Mentor vs Protégé was the bout of the day as 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt took on 21-year old Bajrang Punia in the men’s 65kg category. A neck-to-neck contest was in display at the convention centre in Hyatt Regency as the training partners took on each other. The first two minutes of the bout produced no points with both wrestlers sticking to their guns. Yogeshwar added the first point of the bout with the referee penalising Bajrang for passivity.
The duo put on a show for the crowd after the break by launching tackles at each other. Olympian Yogeshwar stuck to his classical act of evading the rival by going on the knees as Bajrang went for the legs. But the protégé went one up on the mentor with a brilliant take down to stun the Haryana supporters in the crowd. With the clock ticking down silence loomed large among the crowd in anticipation of Yogeshwar’s defeat.
“Guru guru hota hai, chela chela hota hai”, (Mentor is mentor and protégé is protégé) said the commentator as the master delivered in the dying seconds with a quick take down to make it 3-2 and to win Haryana the match.
The duo appeared on camera shortly after the bout to confess to the emotional baggage associated with the contest. Yogeshwar, who is 33 years old, said that he wants Bajrang to take up the weight category after his retirement. If the bout was anything to go by, then the 21-year old surely lived up to the tag as the Olympian’s successor.
Narsingh Yadav, the only Indian wrestler to have qualified for the 2016 Olympics, defeated Livan Lopez Azcuy of Cuba 8-5 to bring some cheer to the Bengaluru camp. The Indian, who had defeated Livan Lopez 16-5 in the quarter-final of 2015 World Wrestling Championship, dominated the first round by scoring points through counter-attacks.
At the start of the second round, the Cuban stunned Narsingh with a brilliant take down to lead the bout. As the clock ticked down, a defeat looked likely for the Indian wrestler. However, with 15 seconds to go, Narsingh pulled out a rolling take down from his repertoire to win the bout 8-5.
The upset of the day came in the women’s 58kg category with World Champion Oksana Herhel of Haryana Hammers suffering a 0-11 defeat to Yulia Ratkevich. Ratkevich, who is a 2012 Olympics bronze medallist, dominated the World Champion throughout the bout by putting Oksana to the mat time after time. A stunned Oksana looked on as Ratkevich grabbed the victory by technical superiority.
Brief Scores:
Haryana Hammers 4-3 Bengaluru Yodhas (in order of bout)
1. Nithin Rathee 9-8 Sandeep Tomar (M 57kg)
2. Tatyana Kit 6-0 Lalita Sherawat (W 53kg)
3. Yuri Maier 0-10 Pavlo Oliiyink (M 97kg)
4. Geetika Jakhar 3-3 Navjot Kaur (Winner- Geetika Jakhar) (W 69kg)
5. Yogeshwar Dutt 3-2 Bajrang Punia (M 65kg)
6. Oksana Herhel 0- 11 Yulia Ratkevich (W 58kg)
7. Livan Lopez Azcuy 5-8 Narsingh Yadav (M 74kg)
Blocked Categories: M 125kg, W 48kg
Mumbai Garuda will take on UP Warriors in the second match of the Haryana leg in the PWL on Thursday at the convention centre in Hyatt Regency in Gurgaon.
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