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 men s 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 men’s doubles (second match) to give their team a 3-1 lead.

In the last match, Rajeev Sharma and Ram Lakhan of Himalayan Tigers beat Sunrisers s pair Amusuna Meitei and Rajendra Kumar in the third men s doubles.

The winner Himalayan Tigers received a cash prize of ₹6 lakh and the runners-up ₹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.