Delhi Sultans cup of woes was filled to the brim as they crashed out of contention after suffering their third successive defeat, going down to UP Dangal 3-4 in the Pro Wrestling League season at the Siri Fort Sports Complex in Delhi on Monday.
The rampaging unbeaten UP Dangal on the other hand moved a step closer to seal a spot in the knock-out stages of the league.
Down 2-3 in the seven contest duel, UP’s icon player Vinesh Phogat and Abdurakhmonob Bekzod won the last two bouts of the day to maintain UP’s unbeaten run.
Vinesh, the 2017 Commonwealth champion who came into the tie without dropping a single point continued buoyant run and steamrolled Maroi Mezien 15-0 in the 50 kg competition via technical superiority to make it 3-3 for Dangal.
Then Asian championship gold medalist Abdurakhmonob Bekzod then hammered Vinod Omprakash 9-0 in the 74 kg competition to complete the rout for UP.
In the fifth bout of the day, Jamalladin Magomedov (Azerbaijan) registered a comfortable 6-2 victory through pinfall over Hitender in the super heavyweight clash of the day, to keep UP stay afloat in the tie.
Earlier UP won the toss and forced World Champion Haji Aliev out of the equation; Delhi Sultans, on the other hand, decided to block Geeta Phogat. Delhi logged in the first win of the day, with Sandeep Tomar beating Nitin Rathi who flattered to deceive.
Nitin started on a strong note as he raced to a 5-0 lead in the opening period but the former Asian Championship gold medalist, who came into the bout undefeated, launched a great comeback to tie the score 8-8 at the end of regulation time in the 57 kg competition.
However the referees awarded the match in Sandeep’s favour, thanks to his big-scoring move in the second period.
Commonwealth champion Sangeeta Phogat caused the biggest upset of the tournament, getting the better of World Champion Vanesa Kaladzinskaya 7-4 in the 57-kg women’s contest.
Vanesa started off on expected lines and blitzed to a 4-2 lead. But Sangeeta showed great tenacity and turned the tables on her more fancied rival.