Srikanth thwarts Lee, Hunters trump Topguns

Bengaluru Topguns may have won three matches as against Hyderabad Hunters’ two on the second day of the Premier Badminton League here on Sunday. But, by winning both the trump matches, their own and also the opponent’s, forcing Topguns to drop a point, Hunters clinched the tie after three just the first three matches.

Contrary to what chief national coach Pullela Gopichand said a couple of days prior to the start of PBL that the trump matches will keep the interest alive till the end, the first two ties of the league were decided with two matches in hand.

After Mumbai Rockets did it on the opening night on Saturday against Awadhe Warriors, Hunters won their tie with a net score of 3-2 against Topguns when Parupalli Kashyap fought hard to beat ‘trump’ Sameer Verma 15-14 15-13 in the third match. This gave Hunters a three-point advantage (Hunters 3, Topguns 0) with mixed doubles and the top draw of the day, the men’s singles match between Lee Chong Wei vs Kidambi Srikanth still to be played.

The spectator interest, however, was kept alive by scheduling the top draw, Wei vs Srikanth for the last. The Sunday crowd was more vocal in their support of the world No. 5 Malaysian than the highest-ranked Indian.  rikanth, however, posted his first win against Wei at a competitive level after having lost all four previous encounters in the circuit besides stretching to three games like in their meeting in the 2013 Indian Badminton League.

Unforced errors like smashing straight into the net when it was an easy winner made Srikanth look silly while he was also late to react to the Malaysian’s forcing shots initially. But Srikanth, who took time to adjust to the court atmosphere and the drift, played his strokes, showing aggression when it required to win the match 15-12 6-15 15-7.

The 22-year-old Srikanth rated his first win against Wei on par with his victories against Chinese Lin Dan (2014 China Open final) and Denmark’s world No. 6 Viktor Axelsen (Swiss Open and India Open finals in 2015). “It is always good to start off the year with a win. Winning against someone like Wei, who has been world No. 1 for many years including 199 consecutive weeks, is fantastic,” said Srikanth.

Topguns, it was though, who made a winning start to their campaign when unranked Chinese, Suo Di defeated Supanida Katethong of Thailand, ranked 39th.. Di, whose last competitive match in the circuit was in November 2014 when she lost to Saina Nehwal in the China Open, brushed aside any doubts by posting a 15-8 15-11 win to give Bengaluru Topguns a 1-0 lead. 

But Hyderabad clinched the tie in the next two when their ‘trump’ men’s doubles pair of Carsten Mogensen and Makis Kido fetched two points including the bonus and was followed by Kashyap bagging a point while also handing his men’s singles opponent Verma a negative point.

Denmark’s Mogensen, ranked fourth in the world, and his Indonesian partner Kido, 38th , were up against Malaysian duo of Hoon Thien How and Khim Wah Lim, both ranked 32nd. Kido’s brilliant retrieval of smashes in the second game brought Hyderabad Hunters back into the match after losing the first 13-15. The Danish-Indonesian duo saved two match points in the decider to become the first team to win a bonus point in the league and in the process surge ahead in points to lead 2-1 in points.

Kashyap, coming from a calf-muscle tear, was up against 46th ranked Sameer Verma, who was chosen as the trump by Bengaluru Topguns. Perhaps Verma coming from the Tata Open India Challenge triumph last month and facing a player returning from an injury was the reason for Topguns nominating the lower-ranked player as trump.

This backfired as the world No. 15 Kashyap was quick to surge into the lead in the first game but found the going tough as he just about managed to win the first game 15-14. However, Verma upped his game in the second as Kashyap hit wide and into the net consistently to surge into a 8-3 lead. But Kashyap brought all his experience and deft net play to bounce back and even push ahead at 12-10. Kashyap sealed the match and the tie with a smash that was sent into the net by Verma.

Post the match, a tired-looking Kashyap said: “Sameer played really good, giving me a tough clash as he came back strongly post a slow start. We won our Trump game that gave us the bonus point and the lead. A win against their Trump player meant they losing the one point that they had. I am happy I won help clinch the tie.”

Santoso wins it for Chennai in trump match 

In the day’s second tie, Chennai Smashers defeated Mumbai Rockets with a net points tally of 4-3. The tie was decided in the last match with Indonesia’s former world No. 3 Simon Santoso winning his trump match for Smashers against Rockets’ RMV Gurusaidutt. The current world No. 113 and 30-year-old Santoso defeated world No. 47 15-9 15-12 after the home team was up 3-2 after four matches.

In the fourth match, the women’s singles, world No. 12 PV Sindhu won against Chinese Han Li 15-8 11-15 15-8 to narrow the margin 2-3 after Rockets were up 3-1 after three matches.

Results:
Hyderabad Hunters beat Bengaluru Topguns (WS: Supanida Katethong lost to Suo Di 8-15 11-15; MD (: Carsten Mogensen/ Markis Kido (TRUMP) bt Hoon Thien How/ Khim Wah Lim 13-15 15-9 15-14; MS: P Kashyap bt Sameer Verma (TRUMP) 15-14 15-13; XD: M Kido/ Jwala Gutta lost to Joachim Fischer Nielsen/ Ashwini Ponnappa 13-15 13-15; MS: Lee Chong Wei lost to Kidambi Srikanth 12-15 15-6 7-15)
Net points: Hyderabad Hunters 3; Bengaluru Topguns 2

Chennai Smashers beat Mumbai Rockets (XD: Chris Adcock/ Pia Zebadiah bt Vladimir Ivanov/ Kamilla Juhl 15-10 7-15 15-11; MS: Brice Leverdez lost to HS Prannoy 8-15 11-15; MD: C Adcock/ Pranaav Jerry Chopra lost to Mathias Boe/ V Ivanov (TRUMP) 10-15 15-9 13-15; WS: PV Sindhu bt Han Li 15-8 11-15 15-8; MS: Simon Santoso (TRUMP) bt RMV Gurusaidutt 15-9 15-12)
Net points: Chennai Smashers 4, Mumbai Rockets 3