Haryana Hammers enter Pro Wrestling League-2 final

Sandeep Tomar and Rajneesh, along with Haryana Hammers’ overseas players helped register a come-from-behind win to enter the final of the Pro Wrestling League Season Two, beating new entrants Jaipur Ninjas 6-3 in the first semi-final in the capital on Tuesday.

After Magomed Kurbanaliev and Marwa Amri levelled scores for Haryana, Rajneesh, Tomar and Sofia Mattsson ensured group stage table toppers, Haryana’s entry into the final for the second year running.

Haryana will clash with winner of the second semi-final between Punjab Royals and Mumbnai Maharathis on Thursday.

Unlike in the group stage, none of the categories were blocked and all nine bouts were fought, negating any advantage to the semi-finalists.

Georgia’s Jakob Makarashvili gave Jaipur Ninjas an early lead by defeating Sumit Sehrawat 10-0 in the opening bout.

Up next was the youngest of the Phogat sisters, Ritu, of Jaipur against Indu Chaudhary of Haryana in the women’s 48kg. Ritu did well to take down Indu thrice in the opening round to surge ahead with a 6-0 lead at the break.

Indu tried to make a comeback but Ritu denied her any chance to bag the bout 8-0 and extend Jaipur’s lead.

Haryana’s imports — Magomed Kurbanaliev and Marwa Amri — proved their dominance with contrasting victories to help the team level 2-2.

While Magomed of Russia overcame a tough challenge from Vinod Kumar Omprakash before prevailing 5-0 in men’s 70kg, it was a cakewalk for Marwa in the women’s 58kg against Pooja Dhanda as the Tunisian wrestler pinned her opponent on several occasions, besides flipping her once to clinch the bout 10-0.

Rajneesh gave Haryana the lead for the first time after eking out a 8-6 win over Jaipur’s Rahul Mann in the men’s 65kg. Jaipur’s Jenny Fransson, Rio Olympics bronze medallist, claimed the sixth bout to once again tie the scores 3-3. Jenny beat Kiran 8-0 in women’s 75kg.

The onus was on Tomar to hand back the lead to Haryana and he did just that in a tightly contested bout. Tomar prevailed over Jaipur’s Utkarsh Kale 5-4.

Rio Games bronze winner Sofia Mattsson then took just 2 minutes and 15 seconds to steer Haryana Hammers into the final with an 8-0 win by fall verdict in women’s 53kg.

Haryana captain Abdusalam Gadisov continued his unbeaten run in the tournament by getting the better of Elizbar Odikadze 5-4 in men’s 97kg.