Ajay & Prannoy play key role in Mumbai's win over Delhi; second consecutive defeat for the defending champs
THE SECOND TIE of the night saw the home team Mumbai Rockets beat Delhi Acers by 6 points. A repeat of last season's final but Rockets avenging their defeat. Local lad Ajay Jayaram along HS Prannoy were the stars for their team.
First up was Ajay who was up against Jan O Jorgensen and it was the latter's Trump match. To everyone's surprise, the Mumbai lad Ajay came pouncing over Jorgensen to win the first game 15-14 with a brilliant challenge that went in his favour.
The second game saw the local boy dominate and take the result in his favour 11-4. A clinical performance from Ajay. Since Delhi lost their trump match, it was a negative point for them while Mumbai had one up.
Ajay's brilliance was carried on by the second men's singles shuttler from Mumbai, HS Prannoy. He was up against World No. 4 Son Wan Ho and a repeat of what Ajay displayed. Sheer determination and grit from Prannoy saw him win the match in straight games 11-9, 11-9.
Two consecutive loss put Delhi under immense pressure and it looked very difficult for them to get back. Two points for Mumbai and Delhi were still lurking in negative point.
Then the mixed doubles were in action, Lee Yong Dae/Zieba up against Vladimir Ivanov/K Maneesha. The young Indian featuring here came as a bit of a surprise. And it looked almost all over for the defending champions as the Rockets pair won the first game 11-5 without much trouble.
But the surprise package proved to be good to some extent for the Acers as Maneesha/Ivanov won the second game 11-8. The final game was a neck-to-neck encounter but the experienced Lee Yong/Zieba snatched it in their favour, 11-9.
It was almost over the Acers after his defeat as coming up next was a Trump match for the Rockets. Sung Ji Hyun was up against Tanvi Lad which shouldn't be a problem for the senior shuttler. Initially it looked like trouble for Sung Ji as Tanvi getting the best out of the latter. But Sung Ji is an experienced and higher ranked player, therefore capitalising on Tanvi's shortcomings to win the match 11-6, 11-8.
This sealed the match for the Rockets as they were leading by 5 points and Acers still had the negative point.
Final match of the night between men's doubles Nipithaon/Lee Yong Dae up against Ivanov/Ivan Sozonov. The Rockets pair were trying to be a nightmare for the Acers as they won the first game 11-9 and repeated the same in the second game, winning it 11-9.
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