IBL final: Jayaram, Saina lift Hotshots to inaugural title

Hyderabad Hotshots came from behind to beat Awadhe Warriors 3-1 in the Indian Badminton League and lift the inaugural title.

Ajay Jayaram’s thrilling 10-21, 21-17, 11-7 win over RMV Guru Sai Dutt was a fitting end for the tournament, with the local lad fighting back from a game down to win the match and seal the encounter.

Earlier, the men’s doubles pair of Goh V Shem and Wah Lim Kim beat Markis Kido and Mathias Boe 21-14 13-21 11-4 to give Hyderabad Hotshots a 2-1 lead.

Kido/Boe were the favourites, especially since they had beaten Goh/Kim in their first meeting in the tournament, but the Hotshots pair controlled the net in the first and third games, keeping points short and snatching the advantage. In the end, it was Boe, the highest ranked doubles player, who cracked, making error after error in the deciding game.

Saina Nehwal completely outplayed PV Sindhu in the marquee match – her 21-15, 21-7 victory drawing Hotshots level with the Warriors after K Srikanth stunned world no 19 S Tanongsak 21-12, 21-20 to give Awadhe Warriors a 1-0 lead.

Hyderabad got right back into the game with Saina completely dominating Sindhu, the rising star of Indian badminton.

Saina, who is ranked no 4 in the world, finishes the tournament unbeaten, having won all seven of her matches.

Sindhu never managed to lead in the match, going 3-1 down early in the first game. She showed flashes of brilliance and managed to win a few points in quick succession at times, but was never able to draw level and seriously threaten Saina. The 18-year-old made a flurry of unforced errors as Saina attacked her body.

The first game saw a lot of positive attacking badminton from Sindhu, and Saina had to work hard to defend against the world no 10. However, the second game was a walk in the park. Sindhu wilted under the pressure and trailed 1-7 at the first interval. Saina kept the points short after that and quickly finished off the match.

Earlier, Srikant started poorly, losing the first couple of points, but came back strongly to retain the lead and go into the first interval of the first game 7-5. Tanongsak could not recover as Srikanth upped his game with some cracking smashes and won it 21-12.

However, a bout of overconfidence seemed to overtake him in the second game. Leading 7-3 at the first interval, and 14-8 at one point, he allowed Tanongsak to come back at 18-18 and then edge ahead 20-19. It was a remarkable fightback from the Thai player, but he couldn’t muster up enough to take the match into a third game.