Hyderabad Hunters won the third edition of the Premier Badminton League championship with a hard-fought 4-3 win over Bengaluru Blasters in the final at Gachibowli Indoor Stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday night.
With the match scores tied three-all, the focus shifted to the last match of the evening – mixed doubles. And, to the disappointment of Bengaluru, Kim Sa Rang and N. Sikki Reddy, who played such a big role in the semifnal win, were found wanting losing to R. Satwiksairaj and Pia Zebadiah.
And, to the delight of the vociferous crowd, Satwik and Pia rose to the occasion to ensure a fitting finale.
Bengaluru was off to a winning start thanks to the brilliance of veteran Mathias Boe guiding his young partner Kim Sa Rang in the men’s doubles to a fluent win over Markis Kido and Yoo Yeon Seong.
At 37, Mathias, former Olympic silver medallist, was too good with his interceptions which effectively nullified the presence of Kido, a doubles legend being former Olympic and World champion.
Mathias and Kim meant business straight away and ensured that the pressure was in the other half right.
Later in the first men’s singles, Lee Hyun Il of Hyderabad won the trump match for his side getting the better of Subhanker Dey. The left-hander brought off some amazing smashes and his great acrobatic dives to retrieve almost everything the opponent hit at him.
In the second game, Subhanker showed his growing stature in the Indian circuit with a gritty display - mixing his crosscourt smashes and some impressive net dribbles. But it was obvious that he was up against someone who was too good.
Then, it was the turn of world champion Viktor Axelsen to dish out an object lesson in the art of scoring in the Trump match for his team against crowd favourite B. Sai Praneeth.
For someone who had beaten the reigning World No. 1 last time in 2010 World juniors in four meetings earlier, Praneeth was woefully short of expectations. Nothing went right for him in the face a barrage of stunning smashes and great cross-court returns. The best part of Viktor’s domination was his brilliant backhand which repeatedly tested the World No. 16 and invariably his response was not equal.
In the second game, Praneeth did come up with some of his trademark big jump smashes and a couple of deep cross-court returns which caught the famed opponent on the wrong foot.
For Hunters, Olympic champion Carolina Marin raised the bar to down a fighting Kirsty Gilmour in the women’s singles. To her credit, the Scottish player for Bengaluru did not let her opponent have a free run and matched her quite often with some powerful net dribbles.
But, to the dismay of Bengaluru camp, Gilmour failed to capitalise on a 10-8 lead with the two-time World champion seeing four consecutive returns being erratic.
Just when it looked Gilmour had a chance to pull it off, Marin switched gears to display her renowned cross-court mastery to win a close second game and see the match scores were level at three-all.
The results: Hyderabad Hunters bt Bengaluru Blasters 4-3 (Markis Kido & Yoo Yeon Seong lost to Mathias Boe & Kim Sa Rang 9-15, 10-15; Lee Hyun Il (T) bt Subhankar Dey 15-7, 15-13; B. Sai Praneeth lost to Viktor Axelsen (T) 15-8, 15-10; Carolina Marin bt Kirsty Gilmour 15-8, 15-14; R. Satwiksairaj & Pia Zebadiah bt Kim Sa Rang & N. Sikki Reddy 15-11, 15-12).
