Royals hammer Haryana

Captain Geeta Phogat pulled off an upset win over World Championship gold medallist Oksana Herhel as Punjab Royals registered an easy 5-2 win over Haryana Hammers to confirm their passage to the semi-finals of the inaugural edition of Pro Wrestling League in the capital on Tuesday.

The costliest buy of the PWL, Herhel failed to live up to her top billing, going down to Punjab Royals’ icon player Geeta 6-8 in the women’s 58kg bout.

Geeta showed excellent skills and solid defence to concede a slight 1-2 advantage to Herhel in Round One.

The second round was hard-fought,where Geeta stunned Herhel by bagging four points to lead 5-2 at one stage before the 21-year-old of Ukraine earned four points on the trot to go 6-5 up.

But in the last few seconds, Geeta managed to overpower her higher-ranked rival, earning two more points to wrap it up style.

With the bout, Punjab took a 3-1 lead.Mausam Khatri then capped a comprehensive victory for the Royals outplaying Haryana Hammers’ Yuri Maier 12-1 by technical superiority.

The Indian grappler proved too strong for the Argentine, finishing off the bout in 4:06 minutes. Vasilisa Marzaliuk, World Championship bronze medallist, had an easy outing against Geetika Jakhar of Haryana, bagging the bout 7-0 in the women’s 69kg to extend Punjab’s lead by 5-1.

In the last bout, captain Yogeshwar Dutt reduced the margin of defeat for Haryana Hammers by getting the better of Rajneesh 6-3.

Earlier, the very first bout of the day ended before it could start as Jargalsaikhan Chuluubat of Punjab Royals thrashed Hitender of Haryana 4-0 by fall in just 37 seconds in the men’s 125kg.

In the women’s 48kg, Haryana’s Nirmal Devi stunned Punjab Royals’ Yana Rattigan to win the bout 6-3 and tie the scores 1-1.