Pro Panja League: Kiraak Hyderabad beat Kochi KDs, Ludhiana Lions Beat Rohtak Rowdies

New Delhi: With only a few games remaining for the playoffs in the first edition of the Pro Panja League, Kiraak Hyderabad and Ludhiana Lions picked up important wins over Kochi KD’s and Rohtak Rowdies, respectively at the IGI Stadium in New Delhi on Thursday, to shift the momentum in the points table. With 128 points, Kochi KD’s stood at the top of the table.

In the first match of the day, Stewe Thomas and Savita Kumari gave Kiraak Hyderabad an early 2-1 lead over Kochi KD’s in the undercard. Mazahir Saidu earned one point for Kochi KD’s. In the main card, Kiraak’s Jagadish Baruah set up the game for his side against Kochi’s Sammer VT with a win in 100kg bout. In the first round, Jagadish pinned down Sameer using smart wrist movement. He then won the bout by clean sweep to get a 5-0 win. Next up, Kiraak’s Asker Ali continued to flash pin his opponent in the 80kg category and won the bout with a clean sweep with 5-0 score.  

In the final bout, Kiraak’s Jincy Jose was up against Kochi’s Yogesh Chaudhary in the 65+kg bout. In the first round, Yogesh pinned down Jincy in matter of seconds using her impeccable forehand power. Yogesh then activated the challenger round and won using the top roll technique. Yogesh won the bout with a clean sweep to get a 10-0 win. Kiraak Hyderabad won the match 12-11.  

In the second match of the night, Rahul Nayak and Srinivas BV won their respective undercard bouts to give Rohtak Rowdies a 2-1 lead over Ludhiana Lions. Rohtak’s Rahul Panicker was up against Ludhiana’s Sivajith Janardanan in the 70kg category bout in the main card. Using his experience and hook technique to his advantage, Rahul won the first two rounds. Sivajith then made a strong comeback and eventually won the bout 3-2.

Up next, Ludhiana’s Sanu Joy was up against Rohtak’s Amal Das in the 70kg category. With a combination of top roll and quick wrist movement, Sanu won the bout with a clean sweep and helped earn his team a 10-0 win. In the final bout, Ludhiana’s Shreya MK faced off against Rohtak’s Karabi Sonowal in the 55kg category but Shreya got a walkover as Karabi was unfit to play the match. Shreya won the bout 5-0. Ludhiana Lions won the match 19-4.

Ludhiana Lions will take on Baroda Badshahs and Kiraak Hyderabad will face off against Mumbai Muscle on 11th August, 2023, Friday.