New Delhi, Dec 18: Riding on fine performances by World Championship medallists Vladimir Khinchegashvil, Vasilisa Marzaliuk and India’s Praveen Rana in the deciding bout, Punjab Royals prevailed over Dilli Veer 4-3 in the Pro Wrestling League, here today. It went down to wire with Punjab and Delhi teams tied at 3-3, before Praveen Rana helped the Royals have the last laugh. With this defeat, Dilli Veer slumped to their third consecutive loss in the competition.
Earlier, the first encounter of the day was a closely-fought contest between Dilli Veer’s Erdenebat Bekhbayar, who is a World Championship bronze medallist, and World Championship gold medal winner Vladimir Khinchegashvil, representing Punjab Royals. In a fast-paced fascinating battle, the gold medallist Vladimir eked out a narrow 4-3 win over Bekhbayar.
In the opening round, Bekhbayar gained the first two points before Vladimir also earned two points to go into the break tied 2-2. After the break, Bekhbayar could win a point as a result of a caution received by Vladimir and was leading 3-2. But with just a few seconds to go before the final whistle, Vladimir managed to topple his rival to earn important two points to win the bout and give Punjab an early lead. (Read: Pro Wrestling League gets off to chaotic start)
In women’s 69kg, Nikki of Dilli Veer failed to match up to Punjab’s Vasilisa Marzaliuk, World Championship bronze medallist, going down tamely 0-10 by technical superiority verdict in just 2:43 minutes. Vasilisa simply outplayed Nikki to gain eight points on a trot, rolling her again and again on the mat. Then she earned two more points just before the end of the first round to extend Punjab’s lead to 2-0.
The Delhi team then managed to win the next bout with World Championship silver medallist Navruzov Ikhtiyor defeating Rajneesh of Punjab 10-0 by technical superiority in men’s 65kg category.
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