Himalayan Tigers won the Pro Masters Badminton League (PMBL) by defeating Sunrisers by 4-1 in the final, at Swarnabharathi Indoor Stadium on Wednesday.The first match of the finals turnout out to be a damp squib with the Himalayan Tigers pair of Lalmuanawma and Shika Khanduri outclassing Sunrisers duo Ajit Wijithilik and Manjusha Sahasrabundhe in straight games 15-12, 15-8 in the mixed doubles, giving their team a 1-0 lead.
Straight games
However, Sunrisers came back strongly with Jaseel Ismail and Vijay Lancy beating Akula Venkata Raju and Deepak Saxena of Himalayan Tigers in straight games in the mens doubles match, levelling the score to 1-1. But, Himalayan Tigers regrouped to win all other matches. Despite injury, Himalayan Tigers top shuttler V Diju paired up with Pooja Mehta and defeated Vijay Lancy and Ch Deepthi of the Sunrisers in the second mixed doubles match.In the fourth match , Ashish Sharma and Sunil Gladson defeated J.B.S. Vidyadhar and Mitesh Hazarnis in a straight games in the mens doubles (second match) to give their team a 3-1 lead.
In the last match, Rajeev Sharma and Ram Lakhan of Himalayan Tigers beat Sunriserss pair Amusuna Meitei and Rajendra Kumar in the third mens doubles.The winner Himalayan Tigers received a cash prize of ₹6 lakh and the runners-up Rs 3 lakh. PMBL organising secretary J.B.S. Vidyadhar said that the three-day tournament for master players was a grand success and they would organise more such tournaments for master players in the coming days.