PBL 3 Tie 12: Delhi Dashers beat Chennai Smashers

In a hapless event, defending champions Chennai Smashers lost the tie against Delhi Dashers after they have relinquished as Gabby Adcock suffered with ankle injury during the first game in the mixed doubles in the Premier Badminton League at the BBD UPBA on Wednesday.

The match would have decided the winner of the tie but Gabby twisted her ankle while returning a shot during their Trump match at 5-6 trail; Chennai were trailing 1-2, but due to lost Trump Delhi were awarded a point and won the tie 3-0 on points.

Previously, Sung Ji Hyun, in the close encounter defeated World No. 3 PV Sindhu to the Delhi Dashers’ advantage of 2-1 over Chennai Smashers. Being lost in the last two matches, Sung avenged her loss against Sindhu to disappoint the crowded stadium. In the fight of clashes, Sung sealed the match with 11-15, 15-13, 15-14.

There was incoming of domination from the Indian, who broke the break with 8-6 lead in the opener. With her deceptive cross court drops, Sindhu used the court well and ended the game with an ease.

In the second game, Sung got better by gearing Sindhu into long rallies and pushed the latter onto the back foot. Sindhu tried her best to push to the limits, but Sung leveled the game and dragged the match to the decider.

In the enthralling summit game, both the players occupied with the aggressive rallies, but eventually the match was into Sung’s hand with a big smile and took Delhi Dashers ahead.

In the men’s singles match, World No. 22 Tian Houwei of China beat Tanongsak Saemsomboonsuk of Smashers with 15-14, 15-10 to put Delhi alive in the tie. In the first game, the Chinese started off well and zoomed to establish an 8-2 lead at the interval. However, after the half time, Tian could not maintain his stride and Tanongsak fought his way back into the match. He showed great tenacity and snatched the lead from Tian for the first time in the match. With a striking distance from winning the game, his errors helped Tian save three game points to win the opening game.

In the second game, with Tanongsak row of unforced errors, he allowed the Chinese to emerge victorious with 15-10.

Delhi’s Wong Wing Ki Vincent reduced the team’s deficit in the tie by registering the 15-10, 15-13 victory against Brice Leverdez.

Vincent started off the first game in the short rush to lead 8-2 by the half time. Later, Brice could get back but could not play better than Vincent, who saved the first game. In the second game, Brice bettered with the returns, which didn’t reach the Delhi juggernaut, who won the match.

In the lung-opener of the day, the Indo/Taiwanese men's doubles combination of B Sumeeth Reddy/ Lee Yang scored a superb 15-13, 15-11 victory over the Russian trump duo of Ivan Sozonov/Vladimir Ivanov to help Chennai Smashers draw first blood of the tie.

The win saw Chennai log in their first point of the evening, while condemned Delhi to a -1 by the virtue of losing the trump match.

The tie is very crucial for both the teams, as the win will put them in a strong position on the team standings board to enter the knock-out stages. Unfortunately, Chennai Smashers mixed doubles had to withdrew in the final match due to Gabby Adcock’s ankle twist.