On the first day of the inaugural Pro Wrestling league, Mumbai Garudabeat Punjab Royals 5-2 (43-26) to put up a strong front from the get go.
It was a disappointing day for the Punjab icon player Geeta Phogat too who lost in the 58-kg category on technical superiority to 2014 Commonwealth Games silver-medallist Sakshi Malik.
The 2010 Commonwealth Games gold-medallist, Phogat, staged a superb comeback after being 2-0 down in the first round and then 4-0 at one point in the second round before coming back with fiercely aggressive play. However, by the end of the six minutes, Phogat had lost on count of her opponent being far superior. In fact, Malik could have wrapped things up even easier as she led 8-4 later. The bout was eventually decided on bigger hold with Malik getting a four pointer in the second round.
On the other hand, Mumbai's icon player Adeline Gray had a commanding bout where she beat Vasilisa Marzaliuk in the 69+ kg category with a scoreline of 10-1 after she led the bout 6-1 at the break.
Punjab did get a positive start with Georgia's reigning world champion Vladimer Khinchegashvili edging 2011 Asian Wrestling Championship bronze-medallist 6-0 in a solid display of freestyle wrestling.
In the toss, the men's 65-kg category and the women's 48-kg category were locked which meant Yana Rattigan, Rajneesh (Punjab) and Ritu Phogat, Amit Dhankar (Mumbai) remained uncontested.
Challenges affect wrestlers
"The challenges do bother me because of the disturbances that happen. Then there is the lingering doubt as to who will win the point. It affects a lot, definitely," Malik said in the post match press conference.
Mumabi's coach Mahavir Singh added the necessity of the challenging rule is good for the sport. "Because of the challenges, I was able to regain some points. We were down by four points and then I challenged for a two pointer that were given to the opposition. Because I could challenge that, it helped our team. So such things are required for clarity," he said on the rule. However, he clarified that it would be ideal if the reviews were done quicker than the 5-6 minutes that it took on the first day.
Virat introduced
Present before the first match of the competition was Indian cricket team Test captain Virat Kohli who co-owns Bengaluru Yodhas.
"This is an interesting concept and hope it takes off. Hope we have great crowds like this," he said to a rapturous response by a packed KD Jadhav Wrestling Stadium at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium. "Such leagues would hopefully help wrestling win more medals and that holds true for other sports too," he added.