Adeline Gray-led Mumbai Garuda finished as many as four of their bouts on technical superiority to post a comfortable 5-2 victory over Uttar Pradesh Warriors in the inaugural edition of the Pro Wrestling league here on Thursday.
After the opening bout was won by World Championship silver medallist Purevjav Unurbat as expected, UP Warriors could pull just one more back, going down tamely in the end.
The opening bout was a one-sided contest as Unurbat wrapped it up in just one minute and 45 seconds after completely overpowering Pradeep of Mumbai Garuda to post a comprehensive 12-1 victory in the Men’s 74kg category.
Sakshi Malik of Mumbai then managed to eke out a narrow 3-2 win over UP’s Sarita in Women’s 58kg to equal the scores at 1-1.
Mumbai gained the lead through Rahul Aware as he thrashed compatriot Jaideep Kumar of UP 11-0 in just 3:46 minutes in Men’s 57kg, but not before suffering an injury with blood coming out from his right temple and a cut on the left cheek bone.
The onus was then on captain Babita to put UP back on track but Odunayo Adekuoroye of Mumbai simply overpowered her 10-0 in 3:34 minutes in Women’s 53kg.
In Men’s 97kg, Mumbai’s Odikadze Elizbar outplayed Stayavrat Kadian of UP 12-0 in 5:47 minutes to hand Mumbai an unassailable 4-1 lead.
Mumbai’s icon player and captain Adeline Gray, who is the World Championship gold in 2012, 2014, 2015, then easily overcame Alina Stadinik Makhinia 10-0 by technical superiority in one minute and 46 seconds in the Women’s 69kg.
But UP’s Ganzorig Mandakhnran reduced the margin by winning the final bout 7-4 against Amit Dhankar of Mumbai and in Men’s 65kg.