PBL 3 Tie 17: Subhankar Dey proves his pick in Bengaluru Blasters, Chennai ends the challenge

Marshalled by PV Sindhu, defending champions Chennai Smashers prevailed the second successive win in Premier Badminton League defeating Bengaluru Blasters with 3-2 at the Nehru Indoor Stadium on Monday. Yet, Chennai Smashers failed to make it to the semi-finals in this season.

After outplaying Tai Tzu Ying couple of days back, Sindhu has proved her worth in the game and the team and got better of Scotland's Kirsty Gilmour 15-9, 15-14 in her Trump match.

On the other hand, emerging World No. 63 shuttler Subhankar Dey of Blasters, the debutant at the league registered his maiden victory against World No. 24 Brice Leverdez with 15-12, 15-12 and proved how much important the PBL is for the shuttlers like him.

While, World No. 1 Viktor Axelsen survived the scare against Thailand’s Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk and won with 15-11, 6-15, 15-9, but the fact that they lost their Trump match in the men's doubles between Mathias Boe and Kim Sa Rang against Chennai's B Sumeeth Reddy and Lee Yang, limited their chances to win the Tie.

In the initial stages of the match, Gilmour targeted the back foot of Sindhu and created the huge gap with the lead of 5-1. But, it didn’t take much time for the World No. 3 to get back onto the form; unbriddling herself, with jump smashes and smart clever drop shots, Sindhu gained dominance and ended the run with the first game victory.

The outcome in the second game was tougher, where Gilmour didn’t let Sindhu to take the ascendancy. The fortunes swung to-and-fro with neither player willing to concede any point. At 14-14, Sindhu managed to hold her nerve while Gilmour committed an error to pocket the match to the Indian.

Meanwhile, Viktor remained static to his returns and maintained himself unstoppable, though there was a small scare when Saensomboonsuk saved the second game with whooping 15-6. It left Axelsen hauled to struggle against the left-handed in the decider, which was allayed quickly as he came back to win the match with 15-9.

Earlier in the men’s doubles match, which was the trump of Bengaluru’s, the pair Mathias Boe and Kim Sa Rang suffered their first loss of the season, who went down to the Smashers’ B Sumeeth Reddy and Lee Yang with 15-8, 14-15, 13-15. In the first game, before conceding the game, Blasters went down the wire with the lead of 10-5. Later, Chennai Smashers came back strongly and emerged victorious.

Results:

Men’s doubles: Yong Lee and B Sumeeth Reddy beat Mathias Boe and Kim Sa Rang (T) with 8-15, 15-14, 15-13

Women’s Singles: PV Sindhu (T) beat K Gilmour with 15-9, 15-14

Men’s Singles: T. Saensomboonsuk lost to Viktor Axelsen with 11-15, 15-6, 9-15

Men’s Singles: Brice Leverdez lost to Subhankar Dey with 12-15, 12-15