PBL 3 Tie 6: Bengaluru Blaster’s ride on Axelsen’s excellence

Bengaluru Blasters registered their first victory at the Premiere Badminton League season 3 against Delhi Dashers with 5-2 in front of their home crowd at the Siri Fort Sports Complex on Thursday.

This encounter in tie 6 is Delhi’s second defeat after losing the first match against Mumbai Rockets in Guwahati. After going down in the first two matches - mixed doubles and men’s singles - Dashers were trailing with 0-2 against Blasters, who were playing first match of the season.

Disparage Sung Ji Hyun of Delhi Dashers, restored trump points for the team after knocking down Kirsty Gilmour of Blasters with 15-10, 8-15, 15-5 in the women’s singles match.

Gilmour amazed World No. 6 with her early lead by the break in the first game, yet, Sung could overcome the hurdle by showing her instinctive skills and took the game with 15-10.

Gilmour turned on one way traffic in the second game and buried Sung with her reception at the net and deceptive drop shots to clinch the second game comfortably with 15-8.

Sung, saved her best for the last to avoid any upset and produced a dominating effort as she cruised to 8-3 at the break and went on to win 15-5 to keep Delhi's hopes alive in the match and equalled the tie with 2-2.

Now comes, World No. 1 Viktor Axelsen  representing Blasters with the loud cheer from the spectators. Viktor proved the victory in his name and the worth of being the world top shuttler. He defeated Tian Houwei in the straight games with 15-11, 15-11 to add an extra point in his trump match to win the tie with 4-2 lead.

Axelsen headed with 3-0 lead in the first match with his cross court smashes, besides the stunning returns before scoring the point. By the half time he was with two point advantage with 8-6. Houwei endeavoured his best to put up fight with Axelsen, who continued his stride with first game win.

Same script is followed in the second game, where Axelsen excelled with the smashes and broke the halftime with 4-point lead and went down with the second game win.

Previously in the first match of the tie, the mixed doubles pair Vladimir Ivanov and Ashwini Ponnappa of Delhi Dashers started with the straight points win to lead 4-0 against Kim Sa Rang and N Sikki Reddy, but unable to keep the momentum with the unforced errors which made Blasters to catch up at 5-5. Later, Kim and Sikki led with 8-6 by the half time. After learning the mistakes made by the opponents, Kim and Sikki pushed the bird to the same corner, which made difficult for Ponnappa and Ivanov to lose the first game with 10-15.

In the second game, Ivanov came up with two wonderful winners early in the game but their two errors evened the honours. However, Dashers duo Ashwini and Ivanov managed to go into the break with 8-7 lead. Bengaluru pair moved ahead by one point post interval. Ponnappa and Ivanov kept their calm and took vital two points lead which was enough for them to win the second game 15-12 and forced the match into decider.

The third game witnessed Blasters with three points early lead before Dashers tried hard to hit the break to 6-4 lead with Ivanov’s jump smash. On the other hand, Kim and Reddy tightened their grip and had three points advantage at the break leading 8-5. They took four-point lead and won the game 15-11.

Followed by first men’s singles match of the tie between World No. 45 Chong Wei Feng of Malaysia and World No. 15 Vincent Wong Wing Ki of Hong Kong. Chong Wei created major upset by beating Vincent with 10-15, 15-13, 15-8 to pocket second point 2-0 of the tie to the Blasters.

Though, falling behind initially, Vincent outpoured with 4-3 in the first game and extended the lead till the break with 8-4 and then 10-4, before Chong exhibited some strokes and reduced the gap with 10-13. Vincent came back strongly to seal the first game 15-10 by hitting superb smash.

Vincent started off the second game with 5-2 lead but world No 45 Feng bounced back and took the lead with a cross court smash and hit another to go with 8-6 at the break. It was neck and neck after the break both Vincent and Feng getting points with their winners. In the end, Feng came out trump after winning next three points to take the second game 15-13 and draw level.

Chong Wei turn the tables over Vincent in the decider by jumping with the massive lead with 6-1 and 8-4 by the break. He was totally unstoppable and wrapped the game with 15-8.

Feng turned out to be the superior player in the decider as he jumped to 6-1 lead and was leading 8-4 at the break. He was in total control of the game, winning points at his will before wrapping up the game 15-8.

Bengaluru Blasters piled misery on Delhi by winning the inconsequential men's doubles tie as their pair Mathias Boe and Kim Sa Rang registered straight games victory 15-9, 15-12 over Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov.

Results:

Mixed Doubles:  Kim Sa Rang and N Sikki Reddy beat Vladimir Ivanov and Ashwini Ponnappa with 10-15, 15-12, 15-11

Men’s Singles:  Chong Wei Feng beat Vincent Wong Wing Ki with 10-15, 15-13, 15-8

Women’s Singles: Sung Ji Ying (T) beat Kirsty Gilmour with 15-10, 8-15, 15-5

Men’s Singles: Viktor Axelsen (T) beat Tian Houwei with 15-11, 15-11

Men’s Doubles: Mathias Boe and Kim Sa Rang beat Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov with

15-9, 15-12