Russia's Vladimir Ivanov turned out to be the star performer for Mumbai Rockets as he guided his team to a thrilling 4-3 victory over Bengaluru Top Guns in the Premier Badminton league here on Tuesday.
Earlier, Chennai Smashers put up a clinical display to outplay Delhi Acers 4-3 and register their second consecutive win in an exciting encounter.
Thailand's Suo Di and Kidambi Srikanth won their matches for Bengaluru, who had lost their last match against Hyderabad Hunters. However, Mumbai, who had also faced a 2-3 defeat in their last match against Chennai Smashers, scored through men's doubles pair of Mathias Boe and Vladimir Ivanov and men's singles player RMV Gurusaidutt.
In the end it was Ivanov and liu Zi Die who earned that victory for Mumbai in the mixed doubles contest.
Men's doubles pair of Mathias Boe and Vladimir Ivanov then brought Mumbai back in the tie with a thrilling 15-13, 15-11 win over Bengaluru's Malaysian pair of Hoon Thien How and Kim Wah lim in their trump match to log two points.
Gurusaidutt swelled the lead for Mumbai Rockets with a 15-7 15-13 win over Banguluru's Anand Pawar in the first men's singles match. The Smashers had earlier defeated Mumbai Rockets 3-2 in their opening tie two days ago. For Delhi Acers, it is their second straight defeat, having lost 2-3 to Awadhe Warriors.