Premier Badminton League: Cai Yun/Bodin Issara beat Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong

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Cai Yun (front) partners Hendra Gunawan in their India's Premier Badminton League debut last Saturday. (photo: 163)

Lucknow: The 2012 men’s doubles Olympic Champion Cai Yun of China and Bodin Issara of Thailand teamed up to lead Awadhe Warriors to a convincing victory over Delhi Aces when the Chinese-Thai pair beat Malaysian duo Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong 2-0 in India’s Premier Badminton League on Monday.Cai Yun (front) partners Hendra Gunawan in their India's Premier Badminton League debut last Saturday. (photo: 163)

The Olympic champion Cai Yun showed he still has some more fuel left in the tank to survive the battle by clinching the last two points both with a sharp smash and with a brilliant serve which left Koo/Tan clueless. Awadhe Warriors led by 3-1 after their men’s doubles victory.

Awadhe Warriors got off to a shaky start when their first men’s singles player S Tanongsak lost to Tommy Sugiarto of Delhi Aces 13-15, 11-15 in 37 minutes.

Then, Saina Nehwal, who had a foot injury and did not participate in the inaugural match on Saturday, got the crowd fired up when she employed a dominant performance against P. C. Thulasi in the second match, beating Thulasi 15-9, 15-10 in the women’s singles match and put her team ahead with 2-1 since Awadhe Warriors had selected that match as the ‘Trump match’.

“Thulasi started well, and I enjoyed playing net shots with her,” said Nehwal after the match.

“It’s good to win my first match of the league, especially when it was a Trump match,” added Nehwal.

After the men’s doubles match, B Sai Praneeth then added another point for Awadhe Warriors when he picked up a 15-12, 15-9 win over Rajiv Ouseph of England before Hendra Gunawan/K Maneesha lost their mixed doubles match to Akshay Dewalkar/Gabrielle Adcock in the mixed doubles match. The final result of the tie was 4-1 in favor of Awadhe Warriors.

Read article below to understand how the ‘Trump Match’ works:
India Premier Badminton League: Lee Chong Wei falls in upset loss to Kidambi Srikanth

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