JOIN USMumbai Rockets trumped Awadhe Warriors 4-1 in their own backyard to stay in contention for a spot in the knock-out stage of the Premier Badminton League, which moves on to Chennai from Friday.
Going into the final encounter of the day, the Mumbai trump men's doubles duo of Lee Yong Dae and Tan Boon Heong beat Awadhe's Hendra Setiawan and Or Chin Chung 15-13, 15-12 to register their second win of the season.
The win gave them four points that took them to fifth on the table with 10 points, while Awadhe's one point from fixture proved enough for them to consolidate their place at the top with 12 points.
In the first match of the day, mixed doubles pair of Lee Yong Dae and Gabriela Stoeva pulled off a major coup by beating Christinna Pedersen and Tang Chun Man 15-10, 14-15, 15-7 to give Mumbai the early lead. The match also saw Awadhe getting a point penalised as it was their trump match.
Sameer Verma picked up a comfortable 15-6, 15-14 straight games victory against Harshit Aggarwal to give Mumbai a 2 (-1) lead.
In the women's singles, Saina Nehwal of India pulled off a 8-15, 15-10, 15-13 victory over World No.11 Beiwen Zhang of USA to keep Awadhe afloat.
World No.3 Kidambi Srikanth of India then overcame a stiff challenge from Korea's Son Wan Ho to pick-up a 15-13,13-15, 15-4 win to reduce Awadhe's deficit. But Mumbai had other ideas.