Pro Panja: Ludhiana Lions beat Baroda Badshahs, Kiraak Hyderabad beat Mumbai Muscle

NEW DELHI: The stage is set for the semi-finals of the inaugural edition of the Pro Panja League being held at the IGI Stadium in New Delhi. On the last day of the group stage fixtures, Mumbai Muscle, Kiraak Hyderabad, Kochi KD’s and Rohtak Rowdies advanced to the semi-finals round of the league.

In the all-important first match of the day, Sachin Goyal, Kanan Borgohain and Mohsin Shaikh gave Baroda Badshahs an early 3-0 lead over Ludhiana Lions in the undercard. In the main card, Ludhiana’s Tawheed Shaikh made his squad proud by winning against Baroda’s Harman Mann in 90kg bout. In the first round, Tawheed pinned down Harman using his forehand power. Tawheed won the bout by clean sweep to get a 10-0 win. Next up, Ludhiana’s Sivajith Janardanan continued to flash pin his opponent and won his bout in the 70kg category with a 5-0 score.

In the final bout, Ludhiana’s Shivam Rajput was up against Baroda’s Kanan Borgohain in the 100kg bout. In the first round, Kanan pinned down Shivam in matter of seconds using his impeccable forehand power. Kanan won the bout with a score of 5-0. Ludhiana Lions won the match 15-8.

In the second match of the night, Shoaib Akhtar and Madhura KN won their respective undercard bouts to give Kiraak Hyderabad a 2-1 lead over Mumbai Muscle. Kiraak’s Siddharth Malakar was up against Mumbai’s Kyle Cummings in the 90kg category bout in the main card. Using his experience, Kyle won the first round and then activated the challenger round. Siddharth won the bout with a score of 8-7.

Up next, Mumbai’s Pramod Mukhi was up against Kiraak’s Jagadish Baruah in the 100kg category. Jagadish won the bout with a score of 3-1. In the final bout, Kiraak’s Stewe Thomas faced off against Mumbai’s Jogender in the 70kg category. A couple of errors by Jogender helped Stewe won the first and second round. Stewe then won then bout with a score of 5-0. Kiraak Hyderabad won the match 13-9.