Pro Wrestling League: Pooja Dhanda beats Marwa Amri as Punjab Royals dominate Veer Marathas to enter final

New Delhi: Defending champions Punjab Royals put up a dominant show to storm into the finals of the Pro Wrestling League, beating Veer Marathas in a semi-final clash on Wednesday. [caption id=“attachment_4319325” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Punjab Royals’ Pooja Dhanda defeated Veer Marathas’ Marwa Amri by 6-4. PWL[/caption] Their star players took a commanding 4-0 lead against Veer Marathas before conceding the first point in the nine-bout tie. Pooja Dhanda then lived up to her new-found reputation of giant killer to down World Championship silver medalist Marwa Amri to seal their place in the final. Pooja began on the wrong foot, losing two points to Marwa in the first period. She, however, bounced back smartly in the next period to turn the contest around. She did one better by pinning the Tunisian and scoring the victory that took Punjab Royals into the title contest. Earlier, in the first clash of the night, Punjab Royals’ Ilyas Bekbulatov got his side off to a flying start, overshadowing the Marathas’ Amit Dhankar 10-4 in the men’s 65kg clash. Ilyas took Dhankar down twice and led 4-0 at the break. In the second round, he overpowered the Indian with his might and took six points in quick succession to take an unassailable lead 10-0 lead. The European Champion relaxed a bit, allowing Amit to take four consolation points. In the women’s 76kg clash, France’s Koumba Larroque gave the Royals a 2-0 advantage as she upset World Championship silver medalist Vasilisa Marzaliuk after an initial scare. Vasilisa, used her technical superiority to race away to a narrow 2-1 lead. The young Frenchwoman, however, bounced back after the initial hiccups to overthrow the 31-year-old from Belarus to win 4-3. In the battle of heavyweights (125kg), 2017 World Champion Geno Petriashvili put the Royals’ in further control with his side’s third consecutive win. He eked out a narrow 4-1 victory over Marathas’ Levan Berianidze. Levan’s extra cautious approach gave Geno a 2-0 lead due to his passivity. Levan, the Armenian, then displayed urgency to clinch his his first point but that wasn’t enough to ward off Geno. Down 0-4 in the tie, Georgi Ketoev breathed some life back into the Marathas as he towered over the young 2016 Cadet World Championship medalist Deepak Punia 9-2.