Punjab Royals’ icon player Geno Petriashvili scored a dominating 7-0 victory over Satender Malik in the super heavyweight category to clinch the match 5-2 against Mumbai Maharathi in the Pro Wrestling League on Monday.
Leading 3-1 at the half-way stage, the Georgian was at his imperious best and delivered the knockout blow to the Mumbai outfit.
Geno’s success not only gave Punjab their fourth win in the tournament but also dashed Maharathi’s hopes of qualifying for the knock-out stages with Veer Marathas becoming the fourth team to advance to the last four.
Anastasija Grigorjeva of Latvia pinned Mumbai’s icon Sakshi Malik 10-2, while Soslan Ramonov of Maharathi beat his compatriot Ilyas Bekbulatov by a narrow 7-6 margin in the last two inconsequential contests. Commonwealth champion Pooja Dhanda of India earlier upset World championship silver medalist Odunayo Adekuoroye of Nigeria to put Punjab 3-1 ahead. It was the Maharathi grappler who seized the initial opportunity and held on to her lead for the entire opening period.
In the third bout of the day, Erdenebatyn Bekhbayar of Mongolia thrashed Utkarsh Kale 10-0 to pull one back for Mumbai. Trailing 0-2, the World championships bronze medalist lived up to his reputation and dominated the Indian to keep his team’s hopes alive of making it to the semifinals of the tournament. Earlier, Mumbai Maharathi won the toss and chose to keep Nirmala Devi out of action while the Royals opted to block Parveen Dahiya in return.