Riding on superb performances by Pavlo Oliynik, Alyssa Lampe and Narsingh Yadav, Bengaluru Yodhas notched up a comfortable 5-2 victory over Punjab Royals in the Pro Wrestling League here today.
Punjab’s out-of-form Geeta made a strong comeback and World champion Vladimir Khinchegashvili expectedly won his bout, but a solid team effort by Bengaluru grapplers saw them register a comprehensive win.
The first bout of the day between Mausam Khatri of Punjab and Pavlo Oliynik of Bengaluru Yodhas in Men’s 97kg was a neck-and-neck contest. While Pavlo dominated the first round, Khatri made a very strong comeback in the second to end the bout with scores tied 4-4. But on the basis of big technique, the Olympic medallist had the last laugh.
In the first round, Pavlo overpowered Khatri to earn four points to lead 4-0 but in the next round, Khatri showed some attacking moves to gain four points and equalise the scores. But because of his opponent’s big technique, Khatri failed to post the bout in his favour and Bengaluru took the early lead.
Women’s 48kg bout between Yana Rattigan of Punjab team and Bengaluru’s Alyssa Lampe was an impressive contest, where both the wrestlers showed a lot of aggression and skills to post the highest scoring fight of the tournament, where as many as 38 points were scored.
Round one ended 14-10 in favour of Alyssa but Yana also impressed with some really good moves to challenge her rival.
Second round was again a closely-fought battle, but in the end, Alyssa managed to defeat Yana 24-14 by technical superiority but not before facing some really tough challenge from her rival.
Down 0-2, Punjab Royals needed to win the next bout and the onus was on World Championship gold medallist Vladimir Khinchegashvili.
Vladimir bagged six points against Sandeep Tomar of Bengaluru Yodhas in the opening of Men’s 57kg round. But the Indian grappler also managed to earn two points to finish round one 6-2.
In round two, Vladimir took an upper hand early and finished off the bout 12-2 by technical superiority in just 4:53 minutes to give Punjab first points of the day.
Lalita Sherawat then gave Bengaluru Yodhas a 3-1 lead as she eked out two points in the last three seconds of the bout to post a win over Priyanka Phogat of Punjab Royals in Women’s 53kg.
Priyanka had the upper hand till the last moments of the fight, leading 2-1 before Lalita turned the table around by earning two important points in the dying seconds and clinch a narrow 3-2 victory.
In Men’s 125kg, Yodhas’ Modzmanashvili Davit, 2012 Olympic silver medallist, straightaway earned four points against Jargalsaikhan Chuluunbat of Punjab Royals in first round. And then another point in the second round to help Bengaluru take an unassailable 4-1 lead over Punjab.
In Women’s 58kg, Punjab captain and icon player Geeta Phogat put behind her disappointing form to get the better of Bengaluru’s Yuliya Ratkevich 9-8.
After winning the opening round 4-2, Geeta always maintained her rhythm. Although she was lagging behind in the second round for some time, she kept her nerves to down Yuliya by a narrow margin.
In the last bout of the day between Praveen Rana of Royals and Yodhas’ captain and icon player Narsingh Yadav, the latter, as expected, won the match 6-3.
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