Chennai Smashers registered 4-3 victory over Delhi Acers today and maintained their dominance on the Star Sports Premier Badminton League’s points table. The first day at the Lucknow Leg witnessed Chennai Smashers taking on visiting Delhi Acers. The hosts dominated the proceedings and won the tie 4-3.
The Trump match, which is the most exciting feature of the Star Sports Premier Badminton League, had Sindhu who shouldered the job for Chennai team today while Tommy Sugiarto played the Trump for Delhi team.
The day started with Men’s Doubles where Pranaav Chopra and Chris Adcock (Chennai Smashers) took on Koo Keat Kien and Tan Boon Heong. Chennai Smashers won this 15-12, 15-14 to open their account 1-0.
Next match had Ajay Jayaram leveling the scorecard 1-1 in a match where he defeated Simon Santoso 15-6, 15-9.
The third match thus became important for Chennai who had already lost their initial advantage. It had Chris Adcock/Pia Zebadiah (CS) beat Koo Keat Kie/Gabrielle Adcock (DA) 14-15, 15-14, 15-14 in a hardly fought match. The result took Chennai one up and the scorecard read 2-1 in their favor.
Then were the Trump Matches. Chennai fielded PV Sindhu against the Acers PC Thulasi, and Sindhu stood up to the team’s faith on her, as she won her game in two easy games, giving her team 2 points and a lead of 4-1 in the tie.
Trailing the tie at 1-4, and having already lost the tie to Chennai, Delhi Acers found themselves in a position like yesterday when they were playing against the Warriors. Trailing the tie at 1-4, Delhi fielded Tommy Sugiarto for the Trump match. Tommy Sugiarto could only reduce the gap as he had an easy outing against Leverdez to earn two points for Delhi Acers. The final scorecard was 4-3 in favor of Chennai Smashers. The victory was Smashers’ second consecutive win and second consecutive loss for the Acers.
Speaking to the media about the victory, Pranaav and Chris, said “It’s a big sigh of relief we would say. Our opponents played so brilliantly and made this match challenging for us. We are happy to finally pull it off at the last moment. We enjoyed the game especially the long rallies that we shared with them. From here we hope to capitalize on the lead and add more points to our name.”
While despite being on the loser’s side, an excited Ajay Jayaram post his win said “This was my first match of the League and plus I had the responsibility of opening my team’s account in the tie today, so a win was the only option for me. I enjoyed the game especially the drop shots which never allowed Simon to get settled. We are now on leveled terms with Chennai and hope to add on from here.”
After their victory, Chris and Pia, said “The tournament is getting tougher with the number of matches and we will have to be mentally potent to cope up with this pressure. This was a real nail biter and we feel great to have won the game and add an important point to our team’s tally. We would like to congratulate our opponents for this fantastic game.”
After the Trump Match, PV Sindhu stated “It was a good match for me. I played many matches against PC Thulasi earlier and I know her game well. I started well and managed to maintain the pressure from the first game. Thulasi gave a good fight but I kept my strategy intact. Happy, that I won the Trump Match for my team.”
Speaking on the win, Tommy Sugiarto said “It was a must win game for me and I am happy that I did it with conviction. We lost this tie, hoping we make a comeback in our next tie”
The detailed scorecard is as under:
