Commonwealth Championship silver medalist Parveen Rana waged a grim battle to help Veer Marathis to down Mumbai Maharathi 4-3 and record their first win in the Pro Wrestling League at Siri Fort Indoor complex in New Delhi on Wednesday.

In the battle between two Maharashtra teams the outcome was decided in the last match as both were tied 3-3, and in this all important match Praveen Rana overpowered namesake riot Praveen Dahiya of Mumbai Maharathi 6-4 to give the league debutantes their first victory.

Rana looked in great touch and warded off all attempts by his opponent to record his first win in this year’s edition. Earlier, World Championship bronze medalist Levan Berianidze ( Armenia) beat Satender Malik 5-0 in the super heavyweight category to make it 3-2 in favour of the Marathas.

However World Championship silver medalist Odunayo Adekouroye ( Nigeria) promptly pulled off a stunning 5-1 victory over Rio Olympic bronze medalist Marwa Amri to level the scores and bring her team back into the contest.

Mumbai won the toss and decided to keep Shravan out of the equation, while Marathas used their card to block Seema Bisla. Olympic champion Russian Soslan Ramonov got Maharathis off to a great start as he annihilated Amit Dhankar 16-0 through technical superiority in the 65 kg competition.

Soslan was in his brutal best and did not even break a sweat as he sealed the bout within couple of minutes of the opening period. In the second bout , skipper Vasilisa Marzaliuk ( Belarus) restored parity for Marathas after she staved off a stiff challenge from France’s Cynthia Vescan 2-1 in the 76 kg event.

It was an evenly poised battle and the results could have gone either ways but Vasilisa hung on by her skin to come out victorious. World championship bronze medalist Georgi Keteov ( Armenia) made it 2-1 in favour of Marathas after he picked up a convincing 5-0 victory over Satyawart Kadian in the heavyweight category.

Mumbai Maharathi pulls out of PWL

In a reaction to alleged cheating of by the organisers of the PWL, led by Sunil Yash Kalra, the CEO of ProSportify, the team owners of Mumbai Maharathi have decided to withdraw from the 3rd edition of the PWL with immediate effect, according to a release issued by the team today.

While the team management has taken in its stride several instances of mismanagement and operational glitches by the league organisers, they reacted strongly to the incident that occurred at the toss between Mumbai Maharathi and their opponents. After Sakshi Malik won the toss, she oped to block the wrestler in the 74 kg category, but was prevented to so by the organisers in a clear violation of the rules. Sakshi then had no option but to block a wrestler in another weight category and the 74 kg category proved vital in the final outcome of the match, with Mumbai Maharathi losing the tie 3-4 to Veer Maratha.

According to the rules, one weight category cannot be blocked for consecutive matches and for a total of 2 out of the 5 league matches. Mumbai Maharathi had blocked the 74 kg category in their first encounter and now sought to do so in their third encounter, adhering to the rules, but the league organisers stepped in to twist the rules and thwart Mumbai Maharathi.

Mumbai Maharathi are the 6th owners who have walked out of the league in 3 years.