Acers beat Rockets 4-3 to clinch Premier Badminton League crown

New Delhi

Much to the delight of the Delhi crowd, Bollywood stars Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan and Rietesh Desmukh played an exhibition match against the trio of Jwala Gutta, Ashwini Ponappa and PV Sindhu.

Earlier, Akshay, who also is the brand ambassador of the PBL and co-owner of the Mumbai Rockets, teamed  up with Sindhu to play against Abhishek and Jwala. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh was also present on the occasion. Coming back to the game, the evening started with the mixed doubles encounter which the Rockets' duo of Kamilla Juhl and Vladimir Ivanov won comfortably against Delhi's Akshay Dewalkar and Gabrielle Adcock 15-6 15-12.

The hosts bounced back in the second match to square the scores 1-1 when Tommy Sugiarto came from a game down to comprehensively thrash HS Prannoy 13-15 15-9 15-9 in the men's singles match.

In a repeat of the thrashing he received in Bengaluru, Sugiarto once again establihed his supremacy as Prannoy failed to keep the momentum he received in the first game. The Indonesian got the advantage of the many unforced errors from the Kerala shuttler.

"It was a tough match as it is  the Final Tie of the League, so its quite expected. Prannoy played very well today and gave me good competition. Losing the first match was a setback but I came back withm better strategies. Happy to win the match, it's big boost to my team," the Indonesian said after the match.

Delhi extended the lead to 2-1 after Koo Kean Kien and Tan Boon Heong prevailed 14-15 15-10 15-14 over Mathias Boe and Vladimir Ivanov in the men's doubles encounter of the evening.

But their joy was shortlived as giantkiller Han Li from China got the visitors back by winning the women's singles match against PC Thulasi 12-15, 15-8, 15-8, which interestingly was Mumbai's Trumph match. Li, who had earlier beaten world number two Saina Nehwal in the semi-finals was once again on the money tonight as she came from a game behind to thrash the Indian shuttler. The scoreboard read 3-2 in favour of the visitors, leaving Delhi's fortunes on their Trumph match between Rajiv Ouseph and Gurusai Dutt.

From 2-3 down, the hosts bounced back in style as England-origin Rajiv thrashed Gurusai 15-11 15-6 in the second men's singles match taking Delhi over the line to 4-3 in the summit clash. In the first game, Rajiv got off to a great start before Gurusai came back but failed to take the game. In the second, Rajiv dominated from the start and squeezed any scoring opportunity for the Hyderabadi to seal the game in favour of the hosts.