Bengaluru: With both the Chennai Smashers and Awadhe Warriors already qualified for the 2017 Premier Badminton League (PBL) semi-finals, there was less pressure on both teams in the tie that took place on Wednesday.
Vincent Wong Wing Ki gave Awadhe Warriors a strong opening by winning the first men’s singles match 6-11, 11-9, 12-10 against Chennai Smashers’ Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk.
The husband and wife pair – Chris and Gabby Adcock brought Chennai Smashers back with a 11-4, 11-9 win in the mixed doubles match against Bodin Isara and Prajakta Sawant to level the score at 1-1.
There were huge momentum shift after Chris and Gabby Adcock’s victory, as Parupalli Kashyap of Chennai Smashers won their ‘Trump match’ 11-7, 5-11, 11-7 against Aditya Joshi to put his team ahead with 3-1.
Although this was Chennai Smashers’ final league tie against Awadhe Warriors, Awadhe Warriors have decided to rest Saina Nehwal. Nehwal also made an announcement earlier Wednesday that she would skip the tie.
“I am not too worried because we are already in the semi-finals, we are currently looking forward to the match in Delhi,” said Nehwal,
“I need to also take care of my knee too, because I will be playing in Malaysia Open next week. The semis and the final are big matches, so I’ll have to prepare and to play my best for that,” added Nehwal.
With the absence of Saina Nehwal, P.V. Sindhu displayed a fine exhibition of badminton to seal a comfortable match against Rituparna Das of Awadhe Warriors 11-4, 11-6 in 22 minutes to extend Warriors’ lead to 4-1.
Although Markis Kido and Goh V Shem of Awadhe Warriors managed to claim their ‘Trump match’ by defeating Mads Pieler Kolding/B. Sumeeth Reddy of Smashers 12-10, 11-8 in the men’s doubles match, but Chennai Smashers still walked away an overall score of 4—3.
