The focus was on established stars but it was Sandeep Tomar who produced a show-stopping performance in a do-or-die bout as MP Yodha pipped Mumbai Maharathi 4-3 in the Pro Wrestling League, here Thursday.
Maharathi's Vinesh Phogat gave Ritu Phogat a lesson in wrestling, showing no mercy as she trounced her cousin sister 15-0 in the 53kg category.
Yodha's fortune depended a lot on how the world championship bronze and 2018 Commonwealth Games silver medallist Pooja Dhanda performs. Up against the Pan American Championships bronze medallist Betzabeth in the 57kg category, Pooja was trailing 1-2 at the break. But the pin fall queen', who won most of her bouts last year by applying that technique, did it again to win the bout 7-4 and bring the Yodha's back in the reckonings.
The 2018 national championships bronze medallist Deepak Punia made it 3-2 in favour of the Maharathi's beating his namesake former national champion Deepak in the 86kg category.
Yodha's Elise Monolova won her 62kg bout against Shilpi Yadav 4-0 to make the final score 3-3 and push the tie to the decider.
In the deciding 57kg bout, Ibragim Ilyasov gave Mumbai a 4-0 lead but Tomar got a pin fall right to bag four points and make it 4-4 in the break. He got another pin fall right at resumption to take a comfortable 8-4 lead. On the counter attack Tomar scored two more points and won the deciding tie for the Yodha's 10-7.
The national champion Maharthi's Harphool was up against the European Championships gold medallist Haji Aliyev in the 65kg category to open the day's proceedings.
Harphool, who gave Asian Games gold medallist Bajrang Punia a tough fight in the previous round, couldn't get his act together against the European champion today and the Azerbaijan wrestler eventually won the bout 7-0 to give MP Yodha a head start.
The 125-kg superheavyweight bout between European Champion Baisteev Vladislav of Maharathi and Yodha's Akash Antil was another one-sided encounter which the former won by technical superiority.
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