Playing with great determination, Maverick Aces stole the opening day honours as they came from behind to defeat Rajdhani Royal 3-2 in a Round-I league match of the 2nd NSCI Badminton League (NBL), which commenced at the NSCI badminton hall, Worli, on Friday morning.
Action during the Round-I league matches
Trailing 0-2, the Aces showed great character and terrific fighting qualities to bounce back in strong fashion by winning the next three rubbers to clinch a satisfying victory.
The standout performance for Aces came from their seasoned pair of Vishal Anand and Rajendra Mehra (Bunty) who displayed plenty of resilience to overcome the younger Royal duo of Rajnish Gupta and Jeet Kapadia 2-1 in three absorbing games in the fifth and deciding rubber. Anand and Bunty dropped the first game, but with some fine defensive approach they managed to quell the challenge from their younger rivals Gupta and Kapadia to record a clinical 18-21, 21-19, 15-11victory which secured them a win from their opening match in the competition.
Earlier, former 9-time National women’s champion Aparna Popat in the company of Amir Valliula gave Royal a positive start by defeating Jai Sonthalia and Aksh Shah 21-9, 22-20 in the opening rubber. Royal extended their lead when their mixed doubles pair of Minoti Anand and Mayur Saraf tamed Mavericks duo of Bhavna Bafna and Vipul Sanghavi in the second rubber.
However, Mavericks turned things around when Rishab Ghia and Kaushal Zaveri combined well to defeat Prabhat Chhabra and Nitesh B. 21-11, 21-16 to reduce the deficit (1-2) before Ajay Hinduja and Chetan Shah won the fourth against Mayur Bhojwani and Nikhil Haria 21-10, 21-16 to level the match scores at 2-all before Anand and Bunty sealed Aces win in the fifth rubber.
Meanwhile, Solitaire Shuttlers and King Shuttlers in contrasting fashions also started off on a winning note. Solitaire Shuttlers overcame Giant Slayers 3-2 while King Shuttlers outclassed Roaring Raqueteers 5-0 in other Round-I league encounters.
Results (round-I league): Mavericks Aces beat Rajdhani Royal 3-2 (Jai Sonthalia/Aksh Shah lost to Aparna Popat/Amir Valliula 9-21, 20-22; Vipul Sanghavi/Bhavna Bafna lost to Mayur Saraf/Minoti Anand 18-21, 9-21; Rishab Ghia/Kaushal Zaveri bt Prabhat Chhabra/Nitesh B. 21-11, 21-16; Ajay Hinduja/Chetan Shah bt Mayur Bhojwani/Nikhil Haria 21-10, 21-16; Vishal Anand/Rajendra Mehra (Bunty) bt Rajnish Gupta/Jeet Kapadia 18-21, 21-19, 15-11).
Solitaire Shuttlers beat Giant Slayers 3-2 (Nazim D./Neral Shah bt Pradeep Gandhe/Naresh Mirpuri 22-20, 21-18; Kashik Mehta/Puja Kothari lost to Hamir Desai/Shalini Kandhari 9-21, 12-21; Chirag Kamdar/Nikhil Bhansali bt Siddharth Doshi/Sanjay Gandhi 21-16, 22-20; Rahil Mehta/Prashant Sadarangani lost to Harry Singh/Raj Golecha 8-21, 13-21; Bonish Shah/Nikhil Bhansali bt Samir Vora/Asad Adenwala 21-7, 20-22, 15-9).
King Shuttlers beat Roaring Raqueteers 5-0 (Naushad D./Karthik Mohta bt Ashish Jalan/Ravi Mal 21-16, 21-19; Nitika Thakur/Yamir Sanghvi bt Samiaa Shah/ Ashish Kapila 17-21, 21-13, 21-8; Ravi Punjabi/Nilay Choksey bt Shaival Jhaveri/Shreyas Ghia 21-10, 21-9; Pratik Chhabra/Dashak Tanna bt Yash Golecha/Keyur Gandhi 21-13, 16-21, 15-11; Suneet Kabra/Pranamaya Joshi bt Romit Nagpal/Sunil Seth 21-14, 21-17).