Pro Wrestling League 2017: Haryana Hammers kick start campaign with win over Mumbai Maharathis

New Delhi: Haryana Hammers avenged their last season’s twin defeats against defending champions Mumbai with a 4-3 victory in the inaugural match of the second edition of the Pro Wrestling League in New Delhi on Monday. After Rajnesh, Abdusalam Gadisov, Sofia Mattson gave Haryana a 3-2 lead with contrasting wins over their respective opponents from the Mumbai Maharathis, Rio Olympics bronze medallist Marwa Amri of Tunisia wrapped it up in style for the Hammers with a 5-0 win over Sarita of India to give the team an unbeaten 4-2 lead. [caption id=“attachment_3184682” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Haryana Hammers win their opening game of the Pro Wrestling League 2017. Twitter@PWLOfficial[/caption] In the final bout of the day, which became inconsequential after Haryana had taken a 4-2 lead, India’s big names in men’s 57kg Sandeep Tomar and Rahul Aware fought hard. In the end, Asian champion and Rio Olympian Sandeep Tomar was stunned by Aware who clinched the bout 14-5 as Mumbai signed off day one of the second edition with some pride. Mumbai had beaten Haryana twice last season. During the league stage, the defending champions got the better of Haryana 4-3 and then bagged the trophy with a comprehensive 7-2 win in the final. Earlier, the opening bout of the second edition of the PWL between Mumbai’s Vikas and Rajneeh of Haryana in men’s 65kg set the mood. The first round was a closely fought battle that ended at tied 2-2. However, Rajneesh completely dominated the second round by bagging 5 points to give Haryana a 1-0 with a comprehensive 7-2 win. Mumbai captain Erica Wiebe leveled the scores 1-1 as she proved her mettle in the very first minute of the bout against India’s Kiran in women’s 75kg by earning four points. She bagged two more to lead 6-0 at the end of round one. Although Kiran tried hard but she was no match to Rio Olympics champion Erica of Canada, who won rather comfortably in the end with a huge 16-0 margin to extend Mumbai’s lead to 2-0. What was expected to be a high-profile affair in men’s 97kg with 2015 World championship silver medallists Abdusalam Gadisov of Russia taking on bronze medal winner Pavlo Oliynik of Ukraine failed to live up to its billing with the former winning 6-0 to help Haryana Hammers open their account. The next bout went on expected lines with Rio Olympic bronze medallist Sofia Mattson of Sweden hardly giving a chance to local wrestler Lalita as she took just two minutes and 33 seconds to win by technical superiority 6-2. Sofia’s victory helped Haryana gain a 3-1 lead. Rio Games bronze winner Jabrayil Hasanov of Azerbaijan kept Mumbai’s chances alive with a 15-0 thrashing of Sumit Sehrawat in the first round of men’s 75kg. Generally, technical superiority is given in a difference of 10 points but to give the Indian wrestlers a fair chance against the international stars, it was made 15-point difference. Earlier, the two teams chose to block men’s 70kg and women’s 48kg categories.