Raptors defend PBL crown

Hyderabad: Winning a competition takes some doing. They say that defending it takes more. It was the turn of Bengaluru Raptors to achieve this feat on Sunday. By winning the Professional Badminton League defeating North Eastern Warriors in the final, the Raptors became the first team in the brief history of the competition to defend the title.

At the GMC Balayogi SATS Indoor Stadium, World Championships bronze medallist B Sai Praneeth and women’s World No 2 Tai Tzu Ying were the standout performers. They won the singles matches, but the men’s doubles pair of Lee Yong Dae and Bodin Isara beat Arun George and Rian Agung Saputro of the Raptors in a trump match to level scores 2-2. It was left to the mixed doubles pair of Chan Peng Soon and Eom Hye Won to finish the job for the Raptors. They beat Krishna Prasad Garaga and Kim Ha Na in the second trump match 15-14, 14-15, 15-12 to give their team an unassailable 4-2 lead, which meant there was no need to play the fifth match.