PBL 3 Tie 9: Hunters despaired with 0-5 loss

Delhi Dashers gave the jolting comeback defeating Hyderabad Hunters with 5-0 on Sunday at Siri Fort Sports Complex after losing two matches at the Premier Badminton League season 3.

By winning the Trump match, Tian Houwei of Delhi Dashers gave the home team unconquerable 4-0 lead against Hunters. Tian after hard fought battle of 15-14, 14-15, 15-10 against Praneeth won the team’s first Tie of the season

World No. 16 Praneeth made Tian run all over the court and also won the 34 shots rally to lead by 8-4 by the half time. The game went neck-to-neck at 13-13 and then 14-14. Tian was favoured with Praneeth’s net error and got lucky with the first game.

In the second game, Praneeth trailed with 3 points initially but fought back with 5-3 lead and broke the break with the two points advantage of 8-6. Houwei equalised the score with two amazing smashes. The game went down the wire to the game point with Praneeth’s last laugh and five consecutive points to seal the game with 15-14. In the decider, notwithstanding Praneeth’s spirited fight, Tian turned the game and won the Trump with 15-10 and gave the first victory of the season to the Dashers.

World No 4 Carolina Marin came to Hyderabad Hunters rescue, after they trailed the hosts by minus one to two points early in the contest, with her dominating straight games 15-10, 15-12 victory over Sung Ji Hyun in the women's singles match.

In the first game, Marin and Sung face hard encounter; Korean led the first half with 8-6 at the break, from where Marin turned on the gears and surged ahead with three points and finally sealed the first game with 15-10.

The second game was the easy-peasy business for the Spaniard who zoomed with 5 points lead by the break with 8-3, later extended her lead to 11-5. Marin’s unforced errors favoured Sung to alleviate the gap with 12-10. Then, Marin’s quick reparation made her to win the game with 15-12.

Earlier, the men’s doubles pair Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov of Dashers won the first match as they left  Markis Kido and Yoo Yeon Seong back with 15-9, 15-11.

In the first game, the opponents went neck to neck till 5-5, before Dashers won three straight points to lead by the break with 8-5. The Russian Ivanov was unbeatable with the smashes, and Dashers have extended the lead to 11-6 and went on to win the game with 15-9. Ivanov and Sozonov repeated the script after switching the sides and headed into the break with the same 8-5. Kido and Seong tried to comeback who decreased the gap with 11-12, yet trailed with one point. But Delhi pair moved on to win the second game 15-11.

Hunters faced the massive jolt when Lee Hyun II lost the Trump against Wong Wing Ki Vincent of Dashers, which put them in minus points. Vincent stunned the Korean with the victory of 13-15, 15-11, 15-4.

Lee started off the first game with an unforced errors that favoured Vincent to head 5-1 lead. Lee started to build the momentum and led by the break with 8-6. Followed by the betterment, he extended the lead to 12-8 with maximum court coverage. After conceding the point after the 28 shots rally, he saved the game with 15-13.

In the second game, Lee and Vincent engaged in some long rallies, before Vincent turned on his pliability with his deceptive net shots to frustrate Lee and led 8-5 by the break with 8-5. From trailing 5-10, Lee bounced back to level the score at 10-10. Vincent emerged victorious with 15-11 to take it to the third game.

The third game saw Vincent surging ahead 7-3 before he hammered body smash on Lee to go into the break with 8-3 lead. Vincent wasted no time after the interval and wrapped the game 15-4.

Vladimir Ivanov and Ashwini Ponnappa cornered Hyderabad Hunters to despondency after registering the 15-11, 15-12 win over Satwik and Pia Zebadiah in the final match of the tie.