Mumbai: Playing in her second match in India’s Premier Badminton League, Rio Olympic silver medalist P. V. Sindhu of Chennai Smashers dispatched Bengaluru Blasters’ Cheung Ngan Yi of 12-10, 11-6 to win the ‘Trump match’ for her team at the NSCI Stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Parupalli Kashyap who suffered a knee injury during his clash against Son Wan Ho of Korea at last year’s German Open, gave Chennai Smashers a 1-0 lead by defeating his higher ranked opponent Sourabh Varma of Bengaluru Blasters in a one-sided match with 11-8, 11-5, before Sindhu added additional two points for her team by winning the women’s singles match, extending Chennai Smashers’ lead to 3-0.
“It was a good match and I am glad to be able to get my first win of the season,” said Sindhu after her victory.
The husband and wife mixed doubles pair Chris and Gabrielle Adcock from Britain then won the mixed doubles match to add one more point to the Chennai Smashers by edging out Bengaluru’s Korea-India combine of Yoo Yeon Seong/Ashwini Ponnappa in three games with a 11-6, 8-11, 15-14 nail-biting match that sealed the tie in favor of Chennai Smashers.
In the last two matches that were deemed inconsequential, Denmark player Victor Axelsen of Bengaluru Blasters battled past Indonesian Tommy Sugiarto of Chennai Smashers 11-7, 13-11 to make it 4-1 before the Korean pair of Ko Sung Hyun Ko and Yoo Yeon Seong lost Bengaluru Blasters’ ‘Trump match’ in the last men’s doubles match to Chris Adcock (Britain) and Mads Pieler Kolding (Denmark) to lose 2 points.
The end result for the tie was Chennai Smashers beat Bengaluru Blasters 5-0.
