Premier Badminton League: Srikanth does the unthinkable but Kashyap helps Hyderabad Hunters to a win over Bengaluru Topguns

The crowd at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Indoor Stadium couldn't have asked for a better evening with players like Parupalli Kashyap, Jwala Gutta, Lee Chong Wei, Ashwini Ponnappa and Kidambi Srikanth all in action in the first match of Sunday between Hyderabad Hunters and Bengaluru Topguns. In the end it was the Hunters who posted a 3-2 victory on points to open their points tally.

Hyderabad Hunters had selected the men's doubles tie between Carsten Mogensen/Markis Kido and Hoon Thien How/Khim Wah Lim as their 'Trump Match' whereas their southern rivals, Bengaluru Topguns  nominated Sameer Verma to play the 'Trump Match' against higher ranked Parupalli Kashyap. A victory in the 'Trump Match' results in gain of two points whereas a loss tantamounts to loss of one point.

In the first tie of the day, which was the women's singles, it was Hyderabad Hunters' Supanida Katethong (Thailand) facing her country mate Suo Di. Though Di was not the favourite to win the contest, she stunned her 59th ranked opponent in the first game as she went into the at the break 8-2 up. She went from strength to strength after that, wrapping up the game 15-8 when at game point Supanida failed to return a smash.

Supanida came back strong in the second game but Di never let her opponent take a big lead. At the break it was 8-7 in favour of Supanida and from there on both the contestants matched each other shot to shot untill Di raced ahead and won the game 15-11 when Supanida misjudged a smash from Di.

Post the win, Di said, “It was a tough match undoubtedly I won the first game comfortably and I was expecting her to give a tough fight in the second game. She came back strong but I kept a hold on my play and did not allow her to take the game which would have meant the third game would have been the decider. This win will help us in the next four games and I am happy that I stood upto the expectations of my team”.

Carsten Mogensen and Markis Kido however became the first players in the tournament to win their 'Trump Match' thus giving the Hunters a 2-1 lead on points. The Denmark-Indonesian pair beat Indonesian duo Hoon Thien How and Khim Wah Lim 13-15, 15-9, 15-14.

Topguns went ahead in the match as Hunters' duo Mogensen and Kido gave up their 8-3 lead at the break as How and Lim quickly shifted gears to level the tie at 11-11. From there on the tie swung from end to end as one team went ahead and the other caught up with them. At 13-13  Lim's superb return gave them the game point which they sealed with ease.

The second game saw change of fortunes as egged on by team captain Jwala Gutta, Hunters lead from the front and hurried to a 15-9 win. The third game lived up to the expectations of a decider where relentless rallies were exchanged between the four shuttlers. It was all square at 12-12 and then 14-14, when Lim fumbled and his shot went just wide giving the Hunters the much needed two points.

Bengaluru were given the knockout punch by  2012 Olympics quarterfinalist Kashyap who performed as per his billing and defeated Verma in straight games (15-14, 15-13). Kashyap took the court with a a strapped right knee but opened up a six point lead very early in the contest as he was 8-2 at the mini break. Verma recovered after that but Kashyap always stayed abreast of his mate until two smashes against the net, levelled the tie at 14-14. However, Verma couldn't hold his nerve in the deciding point and smashed a return wide which should have been kept in.

Verma, ranked 46 in the world surprised his 15th ranked opponent in the second game going into the break leading 8-3 but the experienced Kashyap responded with gumption to square things up at 10-10. He continued playing to his strength of tiring his opponent by involving him in long rallies, soon he was up 12-10 but Verma fought back to make it 12-12. Kashyap was within touching distance of sealing the match as he again went ahead by two points at 14-12, Verma saved one game point but couldn't return a fearsome smash of Kashyap and as a result conceded the game 13-15.

Hunters got one point out of this game while one point was deducted from Topguns' bag as it was the latters 'Trump Match', which meant Hunters were up 3-0 on points and thus any result in the last two matches wouldn't stop them from winning the fixture.

An ecstatic Kashyap while talking about his match, said, “He played really good as he gave me a tough clash as he came back strongly post a slow start. We won our Trump game which gave us the bonus point and the lead. A win on their Trump game would have meant they losing the 1 point that they had. I am happy that I won and we are now leading the tie."

Next it was time for the erstwhile friends, Jwala Gutta (Hunters) and Ashwini Ponnapaa (Topguns) to face-off against each other in the mixed doubles tie. Pairing up with JF Nielse, Ashwini trumped the pair of Jwala and Kido in straight games (15-13, 15-13).

In the first game Ashwini and Nielse maintained a healthy distance from their counterparts and negated the threat of Jwala's powerful smashes by using the full court to good effect. The Hyderabad pair did threaten to take the game away from Bengaluru at 13-14 but Kido left the court open for Nielse to smash a return over Jwala and the game was sealed in Bengaluru's favour. The second game was an encore of the first as Bengaluru's lead was cut down by a fair margin by Jwala and her partner but Kodo again failed to return when they were facing a game point and lost the tie 15-13.

Post the win the duo said, “The win was important for our team. We are happy that we did not allow pressure to get the better of us. Both Jwala and Markis were very good today but we managed to keep the hold in the game and which helped us bag the match”.

Srikanth took the court next amidst cheers of 'Lee Chong Wei, Lee Chong Wei'  from the audience but kept his cool from the beginning of the tie till the end. The highest ranked Indian who had a 0-4 record against the Malaysian did what he had never done. He simply handed out a 15-12, 6-15, 15-7 reverse to the fifth ranked Malaysian to reduce the lead of Hyderabad to 3-2.

The first set was a competitive one where Srikanth led 8-7 at the break and scooted ahead to 14-9 lead before being pegged back by Wei  to 14-12 but then the Indian reaped benefits of a fault from the Malaysian who smashed into the net.

Wei was at his very best in the second game wrapping it up by 15-6 margin before being trumped in the third by Srikanth. In the deciding, Kidambi kept using the width of the court and Wei kept missing the returns. At 14-7, Srikanth again thrashed a powerful smash to right of Wei and he couldn't reach it resulting in wild celebrations amongst the Bengaluru contingent.