18 December,2015 08:00 AM IST | | PTI
Adeline Gray-led Mumbai Garuda finished as many as four of their bouts on technical superiority to post a comfortable 5-2 victory over Uttar Pradesh Warriors in the inaugural edition of the Pro Wrestling League here yesterday
Manesar: Adeline Gray-led Mumbai Garuda finished as many as four of their bouts on technical superiority to post a comfortable 5-2 victory over Uttar Pradesh Warriors in the inaugural edition of the Pro Wrestling League here yesterday.
After the opening bout was won by World Championship silver medallist Purevjav Unurbat as expected, UP Warriors could pull just one more back, going down tamely in the end. Even UP's captain Babita was stunned by Nigerian girl Odunayo Adekuoroye. The opening bout was a one-sided contest as Unurbat wrapped it up in just one minute and 45 seconds after completely overpowering Pradeep of Mumbai Garuda to post a comprehensive 12-1 victory in the Men's 74kg category to give UP Warriors an early 1-0 lead.
Sakshi Malik of Mumbai then managed to eke out a narrow 3-2 win over UP's Sarita in Women's 58kg to equal the scores at 1-1. It was a neck-and-neck battle in the first round, where Sakshi managed to win just a point over her UP rival to take a slender 1-0 at the break. Second round was also a closely-fought affair but Sakshi
once again took an upper hand by bagging two points before Sarita pulled two back to reduce the margin.
Mumbai gained the lead through Rahul Aware as he thrashed compatriot Jaideep Kumar of UP 11-0 in just 3:46 minutes in Men's 57kg, but not before suffering an injury with blood coming out from his right temple and a cut on the left cheek bone. After the first round, Aware was leading 9-0, having put his opponent on the mat. And then he gained two more points in the next round to wrap it up quickly with his injuries hurting him badly.
The onus was then on captain Babita to put UP back on track but Odunayo Adekuoroye of Mumbai simply overpowered her 10-0 in 3:34 minutes in Women's 53kg. The Nigerian girl proved too strong for Babita, gaining four points by the end of opening round to lead 4-0. Odunayo then followed it up with six more points in the next round to
topple the Indian girl by technical superiority to give Mumbai Garuda a solid 3-1 lead.
In Men's 97kg, Mumbai's Odikadze Elizbar outplayed Stayavrat Kadian of UP 12-0 in 5:47 minutes to hand Mumbai an unassailable 4-1 lead. Mumbai's icon player and captain Adeline Gray then easily overcame Alina Stadinik Makhinia 10-0 by technical superiority ain one minute and 46 seconds.
Gray, who is the World Championship gold in 2012, 2014, 2015, lived up her reputation as she hardly had to break a sweat in the Women's 69kg. But UP's Ganzorig Mandakhnran reduced the margin by winning the final bout 7-4 against Amit Dhankar of Mumbai and in Men's 65kg.
