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Dilli Veer took on Haryana Hammers in the third day of India’s premier wrestling competition and the man that everyone looked forward to watching was Haryana’s Yogeshwar Dutt. They had to wait though.
Walking past the resonance of reverberating drums, Dinesh stepped up first for Delhi and the man he was up against- Cuban powerhouse, Livan Lopez. Wrestling for Haryana, Livan raced to a 3-0 lead in the first round. He put his upper body strength to good use.
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The experienced Cuban eased the Indian out of the mat to add a quick fire couple to the scorecard. Lopez showed his class in the second round. Patiently waiting for the Indian to commit, he pounced at the first instance.
Diving swiftly below his opponent, Livan attacked Dinesh’s legs. He pinned him down twice to take an unassailable 7-0 lead and helped Haryana win their first bout.
Gurpal Singh then entered the mat for Delhi in the second bout. Facing him was Argentine, Yuri Maier. The Indian didn’t take long to end the match. He raced to a 7-0 lead in the first round. Using his low centre of gravity, Gurpal never gave Yuri an opportunity to set himself.
He attacked Maier from the get go and was relentless in the second round as well. Singh then extended his lead to 10-0 and end the match before time to draw things level for Delhi. When a player scores 10 points without conceding a single point, the match ends then and there, irrespective of the minutes remaining.
Ukraine’s Oksana Herhel made her entry for Haryana in the third bout. The current Women’s World Champion took on Yesilimak Jale. Unlike the first two bouts, both wrestlers were cautious in their approach, rarely committing themselves.
Surprisingly, the league’s most expensive player lost the first round 1-0. She made up for it in the second. The twenty year old had Jale locked down for prolonged periods and won the match 6-1 by fall. Haryana entered the fourth bout, leading 2-1.
It was time for the Heavyweights to strut their stuff. Weighing in at 125kgs, Haryana’s Hitender battled Delhi’s Krishan Kumar. Understandably, this match up was considerably slower in pace considering their massive frames.
Early on in the first round, Hitender bulldozed Krishan out of the mat to take a 4-0 lead. Delhi’s coach didn’t seem happy about the referee’s decision to award four points for that tackle.
The first round went to Haryana 5-0. Kumar didn’t let that affect him as he quickly turned things around to make it 5-4. But with 30 seconds to play, Hitender stole another two points to end the match 7-4 and give Haryana a 3-1 lead.
Delhi’s twenty four year old Nikki found herself in an intriguing duel with Haryana’s Geetika Jakhar. Both wrestlers cancelled each other out in the first round but Nikki did manage to score a point, after a lapse in concentration from Geetika.
Realizing a win would give her side a sure shot win, Geetika displayed fortitude. She was relentless and shoved her opponent outside the mat to come back from 2-0 down and restore parity. Even though it ended 2-2, the match was won by Haryana.
In case of a draw, the wrestler who scores maximum points from a single tackle wins. Her win meant, Haryana sped ahead to take a 4-1 lead.
The fifth bout was a dead rubber, but Delhi’s Nirmal dominated her opponent and won her match 10-0 inside the first two minutes. Main man and Haryana’s captain Yogeshwar Dutt then entered the mat and the crowd went bonkers.
His opponent- Navruzov Ikhtiyor from Uzbekistan, a silver medalist at the 2015 World Championships. As his mom looked nervously from the crowd, Yogeshwar tried to find an opening but was thwarted by his opponent’s sturdy defense.
He did manage to take a one point lead into the second round though. The Indian showed why he is one of the very best in the second round. Twisting and turning, he countered the Uzbek’s moves with supreme efficiency. He ended up winning the match 3-2 to give Haryana a well deserved 5-2 victory over Delhi.
