Mumbai Rockets score thumping win over Hyderabad Hunters, to face Chennai Smashers in summit clash

Sung Ji Hyun and H S Prannoy guided Mumbai Rockets to a thumping 3- (-1) win over Hyderabad Hunters to set up a summit clash with Chennai Smashers in the Premier Badminton League Season 2 at the Siri Fort Indoor Stadium here on Friday.

Starting the tie, it was the women’s single clash between Carolina Marin of Hunters and Sung Ji Hyun of Mumbai Rockets, which was a trump match for Hunters. Marin made a confident start and pocketed the opening game 11-6 but Sung Ji was a different player altogether in the next game as she dominated her opponent to win the second game 11-6.  In the second match, H S Prannoy of Rockets dished out a superlative performance to edge out Sameer Verma 11-8 15-13.  It extend his winning streak to six in the league.

A lot was riding on Prannoy in the match as it was his trump match and a win would put the tie beyond Hunters’ reach.  Prannoy did not fail to live up to the expectations of his team who entrusted him with the crucial trump match.

He won the first game 11-8 to take upper hand in the match. In the second game, Sameer tried to put up a strong fight but Prannoy saved three game points and held on to his nerve to win the game 15-13 to seal the match.

Earlier, Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu produced a disciplined performance to outwit compatriot and London bronze winner Saina Nehwal in straight games as Chennai Smashers entered the finals of the Premier Badminton league season 2 with a 4-1 win over Awadhe Warriors here tonight.

China Open champion Sindhu, who has never defeated compatriot Saina in a tournament, finally exorcised the ghosts of her losses with a 11-7 11-8 victory over her senior colleague in a crucial women’s singles clash which was Chennai’s trump match.

The Warriors then needed to win their men’s doubles Trump match but V Shem Goh and Markis Kido failed to produce the goods and went down 3-11 10-12 to Chennai’s Chris Adcock and Mads Pieler Kolding in the final rubber.

Earlier, Awadhe Warriors grabbed early lead against Chennai Smashers with World No. 10 Thai pair of Savitree Amitrapal and Bodin Isara defeating Chris Adcock and Gabrielle Adcock, the 2014 Commonwealth games gold medallist pair, 9-11 11-8 11-5 in the opening match.

However, Parupalli Kashyap brought Chennai back into the contest as he produced a measured game with controlled aggression to outwit W Ki Vincent Wong  11-4 11-6 to make it 1-1.