Sports
Icon players shine in PWL
New Delhi, Jan 16 (IANS) In the third season of the Pro Wrestling League (PWL), icon players have continued to live up to the expectations of their respective teams.
With six teams participating in the annual affair, each team has an icon player who is supposed to be the strongest wrestler in his squad.
Interestingly, it is the icon player who happens to be the captain of their respective teams. As per the rule of the league, an icon player cannot be blocked.
By winning all their bouts, icon players have justified the faith reposed in them by their team owners.
Geno Petriashvili, Georgia’s reigning men’s 125 kilogram world champion for Punjab Royals, Haryana Hammers’ Helen Maroulis — the world and Olympic champion the US in women’s 57kg category — World Championship silver medallist Vasilisa Marzaliuk of Belarus in the Veer Marathas’ squad and India’s Rio Olympics medallist Sakshi Malik for Mumbai Maharathi have won all of their bouts till now.
Among other notable wrestlers in the PWL, UP Dangal’s Indian star Vinesh Phogat (women’s 50kg) and Delhi Sultans’ world Championship bronze medallist Alborov Aslan (men’s 92kg) of Azerbaizan have won all of the three bouts each they have contested so far.
Vinesh has shown absolute dominance on the wrestling mat by not conceding even a single point which has helped her in earning 39 points, the highest in the league.
However, it is Sakshi who seems to go ahead in this race by earning 34 points in just two matches closely followed by Alborov Aslan who garnered 30 points in two matches.
Sakshi is expected to top the chart of maximum points when she would be competing against Veer Marathas on Wednesday.
At this stage of the PWL, UP Dangal have won all their three matches and set to become the first team to reach the semi-finals.
Haryana Hammers are second on the chart followed by Punjab Royals.
–IANS
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Sunil Gavaskar gives his opinion of GT allrounder Rahul Tewatia
The left-handed batsman from Haryana is garnering praise from all quarters for the way he’s finishing games regularly in the most exciting IPL season.
Gavaskar reckons Tewatia’s whirlwind knock in Sharjah (in IPL 2020) where he smashed West Indies pacer Sheldon Cottrell for five sixes in an over, gave him the confidence that he belongs to the big stage.
Speaking on Cricket Live on Star Sports, Gavaskar said, “That assault on Sheldon Cottrell in Sharjah gave him the belief to do the impossible and the confidence that he belongs here. We saw the impossible (he did with the bat) the other day as well. There’s no twitching or touching the pads (which shows a batter’s nervousness) when he bats in the death overs. He just waits for the ball to be delivered and plays his shots. He’s got all the shots in the book, but most importantly his temperament to stay cool in a crisis is brilliant.”
Gavaskar has also nicknamed the 28-year-old cricketer the ‘ice-man’ and lauded Tewatia’s ability to remain unruffled during the tense moments.