Super Smashers put up an amazing display of skills to lift the trophy as they defeated King Shuttlers 3-2 in a nailbiting finish at the Yonex- Sunrise NSCI Badminton League (NBL), promoted by Badminton Gurukul, hosted by NSCI and played at the NSCI badminton hall, Worli on Friday.
Super Smashers had won against King Shuttlers earlier in the tournament by a similar 3-2 margin. The Finals started with Naresh Mirpuri & Aritra Sarkar defeating Ashu Jain & Kartik Motha 21-12, 21-15 to provide Super Smashers team with an ideal start.
(From left to right) Convenor of Badminton, Ravi Punjabi | Jt. Convenor Badminton, Sanjay Shah | Secretary, Vijay Advani | President, Jayanti Lal Shah | Jt. Convenor Badminton, Vijay Zanwar | Curator of the NBL & Jt. Convenor Badminton, Supriya Devgun.
Super Smashers star player Yammer Sanghvi & his partner Nikita Thakur had to fight hard against the pair of Samiaa Shah & Sanket Gandhi in what turned out to be a close match which went the distance, however, Yammer and Nikita held their nerves winning the 2nd rubber 23-21, 22-20. Super Smashers were not able to replicate their performance with Sanjay Gandhi & Kaushal Javeri losing to Sumeet Kabra & Abhi Jain 13-21, 16-21 which helped King Shuttlers take a 2-1 lead.
In the next rubber, Yash Golecha & Aksh Jain made a strong comeback and overpowered Romit Nagpal & Prashant Bhojwani 21-11, 21-14 to level scores at 2-2.
The third rubber witnessed the most crucial tie of the finals with the best pairs of Ravi Mal & Ritesh Gupta of Super Smashers pitted against an equally talented Adnan Bearingwala & Gurpreet Soni of King Shuttlers. The match was the ultimate test of mental and physical stamina as it went down to the wire over the course of three sets. King Shuttlers started with a victory when Adnan and Gurpreet overpowered Ravi Mal & Ritesh winning the first game 21-19. Ravi and Ritesh got back in the next game winning by 21-17. The final game was as intense at the first game with both teams head to head with nothing to separate them but a few services errors by King Shuttlers cost them the game as Super Smashers won the league 19-21, 21-17, 15-13.
The winners Super Smashers were awarded 75,000 while King Shuttlers were awarded 50,000 for their efforts.
Result:
Super Smashers beat King Shuttler 3-2.
Ashu Jain & Kartik Motha lost to Naresh Mirpuri & Aritra Sarkar 21-12, 21-15;Yameer Sanghvi & Nikita Thakur beat Samiaa Shah & Sanket Gandhi 21-23, 20-22;Sanjay Gandhi & Kaushal Javeri lost to Suneet Kabra & Abhi Jain 21-13, 21-16;Yash Golecha & Aksh Shah beat Romit Nagpal & Prashant Bhojwani 21-11, 21-14;Ravi Mal & Ritesh Gupta beat Adnan Bearingwala & Gurpreet Soni 19-21, 21-17, 15-13.