Haryana Hammers beat UP Dangal 5-2

Haryana Hammers defeated UP Dangal 5-2 in a Pro Wrestling League Season 4 fixture at the Tau Devi Lal Indoor Stadium here on Wednesday.

The 57kg category bout between the two Indians, Ravi Kumar of Haryana Hammers and Naveen of UP Dangal, brought out the best in them.

Ravi, the 2018 World U23 Championships silver medalist, took a point against the 2018 World Junior Championships silver medalist Naveen after a hard-fought first round.

But despite his best effort, Naveen couldn't create the opening he required and Ravi went on adding point after point to finally clinch the bout 7-2 and give last year's runners-up Hammers a 4-2 winning lead in their first match this season.

The last bout of the evening in the 57kg weight category between the Haryana Hammers' junior world champion Anastasia Nichita and UP Dangal's 2017 Asian championships silver medallist Sarita went in favour of the Hammers with the PWL debutant Anastasia pining the Indian down and clinching the bout 9-0.

Hammers clinched the tie 5-2.

Before that, the European U23 silver medalist Iraki Misituri of UP Dangal tried his best to challenge the twice World Championships bronze medalist Haryana Hammers' Ali Shabanov in their men's 86kg category bout but fell behind by two points after the first round.

The experienced Haryana wrestler kept up the pressure in the second round too and clinched the bout 6-1 to put the Hammers ahead after the first bout of the evening.