Defending champions Mumbai Maharathi finally found their winning form and scored an authoritative 5-2 victory against UP Dangal 5-2 in a league match of the 2nd Pro Wrestling League (PWL) at the KD Jadhav Stadium here on Saturday.
Action the men bouts during the match between Mumbai Maharathi and UP Dangal in the 2nd Pro Wrestling League on Saturday.
UP won the toss and blocked the Men’s 97 kg category, staving off the threat of Pavlo Olinyk, whereas Mumbai decided to block the Women’s 53 kg category, forcing Babita Kumari sit out for the match.
The win was the first for Mumbai this season as they they had lost their first two matches.
Mumbai have now jumped to the second spot on the PWL table with two points from three ties — two points behind joint leaders Haryana Hammers and Jaipur Ninjas.
UP, on the other hand, suffered their second loss from as many ties.
The opening bout witnessed an upset of sorts with Mumbai’s Pritam staging a comeback win over former Asian champion Amit Dhankar of UP in the men’s 70 kilogram category. The bout ended 3-3, but Pritam was declared winner by virtue of having scored the last point.
Later, Mumbai won the next two bouts to take a 3-0 lead. First skipper Erica Wiebe doubled the team’s lead with a 4-0 win over UP’s Belarussian star Maria Mamashuk in the women’s 75kg category. Carolina Castillo Hidalgo then stretched Mumbai’s lead with a 4-1 verdict over Elisa Yankova in the women’s 48kg category.
UP managed to reduce the deficit when Andrey Kviatkovski defeated Mumbai’s promising youngster Vikas in a absorbing bout in the men’s 65kg division.
Andrey produced a four-point move to take the lead in the first round before Vikas grabbed two points with a takedown. Vikas bagged two more points in the second round as the bout finished with both wrestlers locked at 4-4. But Andrey was awarded the tie as he had produced the better scoring move.
But Sarita gave Mumbai an unassailable lead by recording a 9-1 victory over Manisha in the women’s 58kg category before Rio Olympics bronze medallist Jabrayil Hasanov of Azerbaijan extended Mumbai’s lead to 5-1 by defeating UP’s Tariel Gaprindashvili 3-1.
Former Asian champion and 2013 World Championships silver medallist Amit Dahiya provided some consolation for UP fans towards the end by clinching a 3-2 win over Mumbai’s Rahul Aware in a hard fought bout in the men’s 57kg division.