A straight set victory in the decisive fifth match helped Mumbai Rockets beat Delhi Dashers by a convincing margin of 4-1 at the Karmabir Nabin Chandra Bordoloi Indoor Stadium in Guwahati on Monday.
At the beginning of the last match — mixed doubles match of Rockets' lee Yong Dae and Gabriela Stoeva against Dashers'Indian pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Arathi Sara Sunil — both sides needed the game point to win the tie. The much-anticipated final showdown turned out to be a one- way traffic as the Indian pair was outperformed in straight set by the Rockets foreign pair 15-11, 15-9.
In the fourth match of the night, Tian Houwei brought back Delhi into the tie by causing a major upset. The World no 22 defeated World No 5 Son Wan Ho 13-15, 15-13, 15-9 give his team a sniffing chance.
Earlier, Rising Indian Sameer Verma celebrated Christmas with a grand victory, consolidating Mumbai Rockets' position against the Delh Dashers.
Sameer outplayed the Dashers' Trump player Wong Wing Ki Vincent of Hong Kong 15-11, 15-11 to not only fetch the second point for his team but also pushed the Delhi team into negative territory.
Sameer showed his mastery over the court, covering the angles well and toying with the higher ranked Vincent. His cross-court jump smashes were particularly effective, fetching him points almost at well. The 23-year-old Indian star wrapped up the first game in less than 20 minutes and seemed on his way to another facile win.
Earlier, the South Korean-Malaysian duo of lee Yong Dae and Tan Boon Heong drew on their vast experience to down the Russian pair of Ivan Sozonov & Vladimir Ivanov 14-15, 15-14, 15-10 in the opening Men's Doubles match.
In an intense battle between near-equals, Yong Dae and Boon Heong struggled against the towering 6 foot 6 inch presence of Ivanov. They failed to ravel his booming smashes and lost the opening game 14-15.
They got into their own in the next though. Despite falling behind midway through the game, they clawed into the contest by tightening their defence. Yong Dae was particularly impressive, covering the court well and killing the key points smartly.
The third game too was tight, with the lead exchanging hands till 5-5. That's when the Russian pair started making mistakes, repeatedly finding the net in their way. Suddenly, they were down 5-8 and then 7-11. They tried to get back but it was too late.
Warriors aim for first win
North Eastern Warriors will be aiming to put behind the disappointment of their loss to Hyderabad Hunters and get their campaign back on track when they take on the debutants Ahmedabad Smash Masters in the third Premier Badminton league on Tuesday in Guwahati.
“It was really unfortunate that we lost the opening tie. We had lost two close matches which could have gone either ways. But we will take lot of positives in the next one against Ahmedabad. Since we have already played one tie we now have a better idea of it and we are sure that we will execute our plans better. We are expecting to turn around and give a better account for ourselves,” North eastern Warriors’ Ajay Jayaram said. "North Eastern Warriors are a good team and we will have to be at our very best against them. We do too have a good team as well and would say we are ready for the challenge. I believe that we just need to stick to the plan and give our best and the results will follow,” HS Prannoy, from Ahmedabad Smash Masters, said.