Yesterday evening in a battle of the wild cats, Panthers led by example by Rajesh Bhanushali beat Pumas in a humdinger of a match that stretched the entire distance to squeeze themselves into the final of the high profile Reebok Goregaon Sports Club Badminton League.
Falcons Group
Open Doubles, the first match of the best of 5 encounter was a cakewalk for Panthers with the strong young pair of Soumeel Shah and Manish Nair beating Shajee and Tushar of Pumas 15-6, 15-9. Pumas came back strongly with George Koshy and Surendra Dak beating Sylvester Rodrigues and George Iype of Panthers 15-10, 15-6 in the 90+ Doubles category.Sumeel and Vibhuti Mittal pulled back the Mixed Doubles for Panthers beating Samir Rathi and Renu of Pumas in 3 games, 14-15, 15-10, 15-9. Pumas roared back in the 80+ Doubles with George Koshy and Condrad Forte beating Sahil Zota and Dinesh Dhanuka of Panthers 15-3, 15-6.
With the score tied 2 all, it was time for the best match of the day. Pumas Captain Peer Mohamed paired with Paras Siroha to play Panthers Captain Rajesh Bhanushali and Sanjay Khetan. The match went to the wire with Panthers managing to pip the Pumas 9-15, 15-12, 15-12 to secure their team a berth in the finals.
Earlier in the day Falcons beat Raptors 3-1 thanks to sterling displays from Ashish Kejdiwal, Ajit Shetty, Akshay Bayani and YVK Vijaykumar.
Third place tie will be played on Sunday at 2 pm between Pumas and Raptors and the finals at 4:30 pm between Falcons and Panthers.