Delhi beat UP in inconsequential PWL tie

Delhi Sultans ended their disastrous Pro Wrestling League (PWL) campaign with a thrilling 4-3 victory over Uttar Pradesh Dangal in an inconsequential tie between the bottom-placed teams at the K.D. Jadhav Indoor Stadium here on Sunday.

Delhi thus registered their only win of this year's PWL, finishing with a mere two points form their five league matches.

UP ended up at the last spot -- just below Delhi -- having lost all their five matches.

UP won the toss and decided to block the 75 kg Women's category, as Delhi's foreign import Alina Makhynia sat out. Delhi Captain Sakshi Malik chose to block the 97 kg Men's category as both the Men's and Women's heaviest weight categories were blocked for the evening.

The opening bout saw UP's Tariel Gaphrindashvili lose to Delhi's Parveen Rana 7-12 in the 74 kg men's category.

UP's star wrestler and gold medallist in the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Babita Phogat pipped her younger sister Sangeeta Phogat 6-4 in the 53 kg somen's category to equalise 1-1.

Andrey Kviatkovski made it 2-1 for UP as he won 16-0 by virtue of Technical Superiority over Surjeet Grewal, who replaced injured Bajrang Punia for the match. Kviatkovski finished things inside the first minute with a death grip, effecting a takedown first and combining it with a series of rollovers.

Delhi levelled 2-2 soon as three-time Olympic medallist Mariya Stadnik outmuscled UP captain Elitsa Yankova 11-1 in the 48 kg Women's category.

Delhi then went on to take a 3-2 lead as captain Sakshi Malik made short work of UP's Manisha, Winning By Fall and a 12-0 scoreline.

UP's Amit Kumar Dahiya staged a remarkable comeback late in the penultimate bout as he won over Delhi's Erdenebat Bekhbayar 3-1 in the 57 kg men's category to level the teams at 3-3.

In the decider, Georgian wrestler David Tlashadze sealed the tie for Delhi as he overcame Amit Dhankar 8-6 in the 70 kg men's category.

Following the win, Delhi coach Sujeet Mann said: "Our team has not performed so well because our star player Bajrang got injured and then Bekhbayar was also unwell. Hence the team received a setback.

"Happy about team's win but yes today was our last match and we ended the campaign with a great victory."

--IANS

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