PBL 3 Tie 11: Awadhe beats Ahmedabad with 4-3

A vibrant Awadhe Warriors registered another victory after defeating Ahmedabad Smash Masters with 4-3 lead in the Premier Badminton League season 3 on Tuesday.

After the win, Awadhe stood in the top of the League standings with 12 points, while Ahmedabad is placed at third position with 11 points.

Before the final match of the Tie, both the teams equalled the score with 3-3. Later, the men's doubles duo Hendra Setiawan and Tang Chun Han knocked out Kidambi Nandagopal and Lee Chun Hei Reginald with 15-14, 15-10 to lead Awadhe Warriors to a graceful win of 4-3.

Team captain H S Prannoy, registered his new year’s first victory in style after beating Srikanth Kidambi of unbeaten Awadhe Warriors with 15-8, 15-11 and marked the 10th successive win in the league, while Srikanth went down to his second consecutive loss of the season.

Prannoy, who lost to Srikanth in the French Open finals, zoomed in the first game with the six points lead by the half time with 8-2. Srikanth tried hard to revert but could not muster enough and went down in the game. In the second game, the Denmark Open winner tried to get going in the match but Prannoy was clearly the better player on the court and raced to the victory in convincing manner.

In the marquee encounter, World No. 1 Tai Tzu proved herself worth to be unbeatable when she defeated Awadhe Warriors captain Saina Nehwal with 15-5, 15-14 to help Smash Masters restore the parity in the Tie. Tzu won the opening game in no time.

Saina fixed a tough play against Tai in the second game. However, it was not her day even after pushing Tai to the limits. Eventually, she went down to the Taiwanese to the spectators - including cricketer Suresh Raina - disappointment, who were cheering the Indian.

Earlier in the first Trump match, Kashyap proved his experience with his comeback from nowhere in the decider. He defeated Sourabh Verma of Ahmedabad Smash Masters with 11-15, 15-13, 15-14.

Sourabh looked in great touch in the opening game and was hardly challenged by Kashyap. Even though the Awadhe showed sparks of brilliance in few rallies, Sourabh managed to dominate the proceedings to take the game.

In the second game, the shuttlers were widely celebrating the points, as the game went neck-to-neck and was very intense that Kashyap and Sourabh were holding their nerves. Awadhe Warriors showed the great defense and restored the parity.

Sourabh raced to the 8-3 early lead in the decider and went down to the wire. Ahmedabad player gave no chance to trump challenger Kashyap and raced to the massive gap with 14-10. Kashyap showed great resiliency and saved four match points to finally seal the match 15-14 after Sourabh found the nets.

Awadhe Warriors logged the first point of the tie after their mixed doubles pair Christina Pedersen/Tang Chun Man came from a game down to beat Kamilla Rytter Juhl/Law Cheuk Him 14-15, 15-12, 15-14.