The players of the Chennai Smashers franchise rushed on to the court at the Siri Fort stadium and mobbed Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk, lifting him into the air. The Thai player had just beaten Ajay Jayaram 9-11, 11-7, 11-3 to give the Smashers a 4-3 win over Mumbai Rockets in the final of the third edition of the Premier Badminton League (PBL).
But perhaps there was another unsung hero. The merits of the PBL's 11-points-a-game scoring format - currently being tested by the Badminton World Federation -- are up for debate. The system has not found many fans. PV Sindhu has made it clear that she prefers the old 21-point game, still predominantly in use in international badminton. "There's just no time to strategize at all," she said. "By the time you think, the point is over."
There's perhaps some irony in the fact that Sindhu's team, Chennai, had the format to thank for their win in the final of the PBL.
With the scores locked 3-3, it all came down to the singles match between Jayaram and Tanongsak. Jayaram was the form player going into the match. Over the course of the tournament, he beat world No. 2 Jan O Jorgensen, Olympic bronze medallist Victor Axelsen and China Open winner Kidambi Srikanth - all players ranked higher than him. Tanongsak, winner of the 2016 Denmark Super Series, had lost both matches he had played in the tournament. He also had an injury to his playing left shoulder. After his last match on Wednesday, he hadn't even visited the practice court. Indeed the only reason he was playing the final was that teammate Tommy Sugiarto had a bad toothache and was in an even worse condition to play.
So Tanongsak stepped on to the court. "We didn't have an option but to send him out," said Chennai coach Arun Vishnu. The only thing in the Thai's favour was his style of play. "The rallying style is at a big disadvantage in these rules," the team's Parupalli Kashyap, who isn't a fan of the 11-point format, said after the tie. "There's no point having a lot of stamina. The player who finishes points quickly will do well."
It helped that that's exactly the kind of player Tanongsak is. "The 11-point system was good for me," he said later. "I've a very good offensive game. I wasn't able to smash very well. But it was enough."
Jayaram started off strongly, taking the first game with ease. He constructed his points well, getting into good positions before finishing. But Tanongsak turned things around in the second game. Keeping things simple, he just looked to attack early. After 3-3, he won five straight points to make it 8-3. That might not have seemed like much in a race to 21 points, but in the shorter format it was - for Jayaram - the equivalent of being 13-18 down.
"Ajay came under a lot of pressure and that's what cost him," said Chennai coach Arun. Indeed, errors steadily crept into his game - at first in a trickle and then in a torrent. The final game was rife with them. The Indian player couldn't get a single point from his own racket.
And while Tanongsak might have been a hero for Chennai, he himself would be a fan of the much-maligned scoring system. "I probably wouldn't have been able to do win in the old rule," he said. "The 11-point game made it easier for me."