CENSEO Smashers, having barely survived by the skin of their teeth in the league phase to qualify for the knockout stage, put up terrifc show while beating table topper MBL Shuttlers 3-2 to bag the 8-team 5th MCF-Badminton Premier League, at Mandpeshwar Civic Federation’s courts here on late Sunday night.
Champions CENSEO Smashers with the glittering trophy pose with the MCF league Organisers (standing from right-) –Jitendra Roy- Organising Secretary, Chief referee Hurbert Miranda and Jigar Shah (MCF official).
The Smashers, after winning the toss, had the option of chosing the sequences of the five matches. They preferred to go for the first two open doubles ties, followed by open singles, open veteran doubles and lastly the mixed doubles. After both the teams were tied at 2-all, it was left to the mixed doubles pair of Rhea Rocque and Vishal Wagh to bring their supporters cheers and victory with a tensely fought straight games victory over Deepasha Kapadia and Amol Joshi.
Both CENSEO Smashers and Paradise Warriors had finished with identical 22 points for the last spot to qualify for the semifinals. It was just a solitary point difference between the two (in terms of games won and lost) that tilted the scales in favour of the Smashers. Earlier, the Smashers had routed third-placed Lalita Katre-less SAI Shuttlers 3-0 before upsetting the favourites MBL Shuttlers for the coveted title.
RESULTS OF THE FINAL:
CENSEO Smashers bt MBL Shuttlers 3-2: OPEN DOUBLES (2): Am,ar Ainapure/Kathan Shah lost to Rajendra Sapre/Gautam Shetty 8-21, 6-21. OPEN DOUBLES (1): Mitesh Arora/Aditya Reddy bt Aakash Wagh/Anup Nerurkar 14-21, 21-16, 21-12. OPEN SINGLES: Kathan Shah bt Jiffin Thazhath 21-10, 21-2. OPEN DOUBLES (Vet): Bharat Soni/Mapno Pandurang lost to Ajay Tantri/Gautam Shetty 10-21. MIXED DOUBLES: Rhea Rocque/.Vishal Wagh bt Deepasha Kapadia/Amol Joshi 21-15, 22-20.