The flick-lift was the bait. World champion Shi Yuqi was beat.

The game was badminton-chess. It ended with the Delhi World Championships finding a sensational Premier show, as unseeded Ayush Shetty took out defending champ, Shi Yuqi. India has a new boom-box to belt out the bangers. The win though came from a lilting lift.

Chinese World No 1, the defending World champion, arguably the most-complete shuttler in men’s singles currently, is known to problem-solve through all riddles. Ayush Shetty’s big booming smash that originates from 8 feet high wasn’t even a cryptic puzzle. It was watermarked on this India-China Round 1 contest the moment the draw threw up an unseeded, dangerous opponent in the Chinese champs path. The 6’4″ Indian was expected to rain down steep scorchers from nose-bleeding altitude.

What the Chinese might not have expected was for the Indian to flip the axis. He had rich, deep, screaming smashes alright. It sent Mexican waves of goosebumps through the watching galleries of the Indira Gandhi stadium. But more than the smashes, Ayush had the tactical, tricky, tingling lifts.

The bait of a shot that launches the shuttle into an inviting hitting orbit, beckoning Yuqi to slam it down were so tantalisingly elusive in the third aerial dimension that the Chinese was lured into belting it down, but the high lift denied him the sweet-spot to strike it deep. Or even cross the net striking it against the wind. The pressure was bound to build when Yuqi’s smashes got stifled.

It was a riveting contest because Ayush had been decimated in the Asian Championship final when exhaustion and incoherent strategy ended things in a whimper. The high-lift was the first course correction. It pushed the world-beating Chinese to the edge.

Forcing Yuqi to lift was the prologue to the plan. 3-0 up means little against a shuttler as formidable as Yuqi. But it was in going to 4-1 that the weak Yuqi lift was smothered into the ground with the first of Ayush howitzers. Reading conditions of shuttle trajectory at IG was something Yuqi struggled with totally from one side.

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It also led to a spate of errors on the net where Yuqi’s backhand control tends to be impeccable. He logged at least half a dozen net errors in the opening set at the net.

Yuqi was forced into Plan B as early as 7-3 in the first set. He increased the pace mid-rally trying to swamp Ayush. The Indian was up to the task. Not only did he get onboard the flat, fast exchange, unafraid of speed, he ended with a regal cross court smash kill that left Yuqi on one knee.

But the Ayush floaters to the backline kept coming and teasing the Chinese and his judgment on the lines. Just to probe his defense ain’t shabby at all, he dove around plenty before inducing a Yuqi error at 9-4. The Indian reached a 11-5 midset lead, with yet another tactical lift, followed by a return that evaded his outstretched forehand. It was a recurring theme to get to 16-9.

Yuqi was struggling to digest that both his control-play, the sorts Chinese rely on, with emphasis on rhythm, and his chaos in increasing the rally pace were really not facing Ayush. If anything, the Indian replied in kind of the parallels. When Yuqi’s midvourt lift was punished giving Ayush the opening set, the crowd sensed the new Shetty on the block, was onto something.

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The 21-14 scoreline was impressive. Before the sides switched, Yuqi did most of the talking rather than the coach – flailing his racquet wielding hand. He pulled the midset back 21-13. But the decider promised to be a humdinger.

You knew Ayush Shetty had arrived when the passage from 17-7 up to 18-14 had Indian fans jumping and wincing at his errors and exhaling with giddy cheers as he edged closer to the 21-point mark.

Yuqi threw everything he had in his consistency repertoire at double clip at Ayush in the closing stages. The rushed pace almost did Ayush in as the score reached 20-19. The man has a penchant for drama. A medical time out, tangled toes, a sitter in the net, Ayush contrived to find every single way to drag this to the edge of the cliff.

The final point was neither a steep smash nor a loopy clever lift. It was a tired push- helped in staying in bounds by his tired arm and the winds against him. Winning seemed destiny. A star was born. The Asian Championships final was avenged. The World No 1 was evicted in Round 1. The lift took off sensationally.