IBL – Hotshots on fire in league final

The Hyderabad Hotshots won the title at the Vodafone Indian Badminton League by beating the Awadhe Warriors 3-1.

By Don Hearn.  Photos: Badmintonphoto (archives)

In a way, the Indian Badminton League (IBL) finished the way it began: with both uncertainty and excitement.  Unlike the established badminton team events such as the Sudirman, Thomas, or Uber Cups, or even the more recent Axiata Cup, the past two and a half weeks of the brand-new IBL have seen 18 team ties with only a single shutout among them.

The final simply continued the pattern.  Not one of the matches began as an obvious blow-out for either team and only one of the two straight-game involved was even close to a one-sided scoreline.

The tie started off with the only two consistent results from the last time the two teams met each other as Srikanth K. and Saina Nehwal (pictured) each chalked up a point, just as they had done in their first IBL appearances, on August 15^th.

Srikanth got his against a new opponent, Thailand’s Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk, who was unable to avenge the losses his two compatriots, whom the Indian had beaten to win his first Grand Prix Gold title on Thai soil in June.  Srikanth took the first game easily but had to face more pressure in the second before he proved the sharper player at the sudden-death 20-all stage.

Saina Nehwal then continued her schooling of 18-year-old compatriot P. V. Sindhu, the newest inductee to the world’s top ten in women’s singles.  Saina’s 21-15, 21-7 victory was just slightly more convincing than her win earlier in the month.

With the loss by Tanongsak, though, Hyderabad needed it’s next two to change their stars as both Goh V. Shem / Lim Khim Wah (pictured) and Ajay Jayaram had lost in the Hotshots’ previous meeting with the Awadhe Warriors.

For Goh/Lim, this meant figuring out a way to beat the Warriors’ pairing of former men’s doubles world #1’s Mathias Boe / Markis Kido, who had only been beaten in IBL play by the only pair that had been to world #1 together.

Lim Khim Wah turned out to be the key in the match as he and Goh struggled whenever he wasn’t bang on his game.  Fortunately for the Hotshots, Lim was on in the first and third games, when he ruled the net and kept the pressure on newly-paired veterans.  Lim was named Vodafone Player of the Tie for his role in the victory.

Last up, Ajay Jayaram (pictured), who had lost to Srikanth of the Warriors in straight games in group play, had an even worse start against R.M.V. Guru Sai Dutt, who took the first game of the second men’s singles 21-10.

Jayaram bounced back to take the second game and to finish off the quick third one 11-7 to had the championship to the Hyderabad Hotshots.

Hyderabad’s marquee player Saina Nehwal was voted Player of the Tournament.  In winning all of her matches, she was the only undefeated member of a finalist team.  Lee Chong Wei of the Mumbai Masters and the aptly-named Krrish Delhi Smasher Tan Boon Heong were also undefeated, along with two other players who played and won only a single match each.

Click here for complete results