Haryana hammer Delhi, set up PWL-4 final with Punjab Royals

In a repeat of last season, Haryana Hammers set up a date with Punjab Royals in the summit clash of the Pro Wrestling League (PWL) Season 4, after beating Delhi Sultans 5-2 at the Gautam Buddha University Indoor Stadium here on Wednesday.

Local boy Rajneesh clinched the men's 65 kg category bout against Andrey Kviatkovski of Ukraine 9-3 to give Haryana an unbeatable 5-2 lead over Delhi with two bouts remaining in the second semi-final here.

Rajneesh drove the final nail in Delhi's coffin after Ravi Kumar, Kiran, Anastasia Nichita and Aleksander Khotsianivski won four of the six bouts played till then.

Ali Shabanov added one more win in Haryana's kitty when he got the better of Sanjeet Kundu 5-0 in the men's 86 kg category after Sakshi Malik pulled one back for the Delhi Sultans beating Tatyana Omelchenko 6-2 in the women's 62 kg category with a dominating performance. Haryana won the tie 6-3 in the end.

Earlier, find of PWL-4 World U23 Championships silver medallist Ravi Kumar put the Haryana Hammers ahead by winning the men's 57 kg bout against Delhi's Pankaj 7-1 which included a beautiful four-point takedown in the first round.

The 2018 CWG bronze medallist Kiran, showing tactical superiority, made it 2-0 in Haryana's favour after defeating the 2018 European U23 champion Anastasia Shustova of Ukraine 6-1 in the women's 76 kg category.

Russian national champion Khetik Tsabolov made it 1-2 for Delhi defeating Haryana Hammers' 2017 Commonwealth Championships silver medallist Praveen Rana 9-0 in the men's 74 kg category.

World junior champion Anastasia Nichita of Moldova gave Haryana a healthy 3-1 lead getting the better of Delhi's Katherina Zhydachivska 11-2 in what turned out to be a one-sided encounter in the women's 57 kg category.

Aleksander Khotsianivski took the Hammers one more step closer to winning the tie by clinching the men's 125 kg super heavyweight bout against Satender Malik of Delhi on technical superiority. Aleksander won the bout 16-0 in 51 seconds.

National champion Pinki of Delhi delayed the inevitable winning the women's 53 kg bout against Haryana's 2017 Commonwealth Championships gold medallist Seema 3-1.

--IANS

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