Pro-Wrestling League: Yogeshwar Dutt shines in decider, guides Haryana to 4-3 victory

Noida: On a day of upsets, Haryana Hammers prevailed 4-3 over Uttar Pradesh Wizards as India's Olympic medallist Yogeshwar Dutt came from behind to register a brilliant win in the deciding bout of the Pro-Wrestling League here on Saturday.

While Haryana Hammers' Livan Lopez Azcuy stunned World Championship silver medallist Purevjav Unurbat, representing UP Wizards in Men's 74kg, UP captain Babita then scored an upset win over Haryana's Tatyana Kit, who is also a World Championship bronze medallist in women's 53kg.

After the two upsets, the scores were tied at 3-3 with onus on Hammers' captain and icon player Yogeshwar Dutt to bail the team out.

And Yogeshwar did just that by posting a 9-4 win by Fall verdict over Vikas Kumar of UP team in Men's 65kg category.

Yogeshwar ended the bout much before the final whistle.

Earlier, Haryana Hammers took the lead through Nitin as he beat Sergey Ratushny of Uttar Pradesh Wizards 3-1 in the Men's 57kg category.

Having earned two points in the first round, he added another one in the next to always maintain a slight lead over his opponent, who could bag a single point during the bout.

In women's 48kg, UP Wizards' Kogut Oleksandra came from behind to post a 6-2 win over Haryana's Nirmala Devi and tie the scores 1-1.

The opening round ended at 1-1, but second round saw a lot of action. Although the Indian girl gained one more point, Oleksandra, 2010 World Championship gold medallist, used all her experience to come back strongly with just a minute left and earned five points on the trot.

Next battle was between the two Indians in Men's 125kg with UP team's Joginder Kumar up against Haryana's Hitender.

Hitender bagged two points in the first round to go into the break with a slight lead and then won two more in the next round by pushing his rival out of the mat to comfortably seal it off 4-0 and hand back Haryana back the advantage.

It all depended on Geetika Jakhar to extend Haryana's lead but Alina Stadinik Makhinia of UP Wizards proved to be too strong for the Indian, dominating the proceedings completely in Women's 69kg.

At the end of round one, Alina was leading 5-0. In the second round, Geetika was seen grasping for breadth even as Alina finished the bout 11-0 by technical superiorty in 5:45 minutes to score the equaliser 2-2 for UP.

UP then suffered a big blow as one of their best bets, Unurbat faced an upset defeat against Azcuy.

In the opening round Azcuy pushed Unurbat of Mongolia out of the mat twice to gain a point each and go into the break with a slight edge.

In the second round, Unurbat was expected to turn things around but Azcuy, who was the last year's World Championship bronze medallist, earned two points in the dying moments to make it 4-1 in the end.

In women's 53kg, UP captain Babita Kumari then caused an upset win over World Championship bronze medal winner Tatyana Kit of Haryana team 8-6 to tie the scores at 3-3.

Although Tatyana was leading 2-0 after the first round, Babita did not give her opponent a chance in the next. Despite Tatyana bagging four more points at the start of the bout, Babita simply overpowered her rival to register an come from behind win with eight points on the trot.

Thereafter, Vikas gave a tough fight to Yogeshwar but the London Olympic bronze medallist used all his experience to have the last laugh.