Mumbai Rockets trumped Awadhe Warriors 3-2 (4-1 on points) to stay alive in the Premier Badminton League (PBL) at the BBD UPBA here on Thursday.
Going into the final encounter of the evening, the Mumbai trump men’s doubles duo of Lee Yong Dae/Tan Boon Heong beat Awadhe’s Hendra Setiawan/Or Chin Chung 15-13, 15-12 to register their second win of the season.
The win gave them crucial four points that took them to fifth on the table from eighth with a total of 10 points, while Awadhe’s one point from fixture proved enough for them to consolidate their place at the top of the table with 12 points.
In the super-match of the day, World No.3 Kidambi Srikanth overcame a stiff challenge from South Korea’s World No.5 Son Wan Ho to pick-up a thrilling 15-13,13-15, 15-4 victory and reduce Awadhe’s deficit.
Srikanth who was on a two-match losing streak did well to pick up the win and log in a crucial point for his team.
In the women’s singles match, World No.10 Saina Nehwal pulled off a stunning 8-15, 15-10,15-13 victory over World No.11 Beiwen Zhang of US to keep Awadhe afloat.S aina, who is coming into the match on the back of a defeat against World No.1 Tai Tzu Ying proved to be no match against Beiwen in the opening game.
The US shuttler was using the length of the court perfectly tormenting the Indian with her superb cross-court drops and smashes and raced to the victory in the opening game in no time.
But Saina known for her resilience got back into the match and even though Beiwen was leading in the initial phases of second game, the Indian slowly turned the tides and went into break leading 8-7.
She did not allow Beiwen any chance post the interval and wrapped up the game to restore parity.
In the final game, Saina was in no mood to let go off the opportunity and pounced on her opponent before bringing all her experience into play. She made full use of the tiring US player and went into the break with a lead of 8-4.
After the change of ends, even though Beiwen troubled the Indian with her impeccable net-play and saved three match points, it was Saina who eventually went on to win the match to send the packed stadium into rapturous celebration.
Earlier in the day, Sameer Verma picked up a comfortable 15-6,15-14 straight games victory against his compatriot Harshit Aggarwal to give Mumbai a huge 2 (-1) over Awadhe in the five match duel.
The young Harshit replacing Parupalli Kashyap in the line-up could not mount any serious challenge on his senior pro and went meekly in the opening game.
He did try to make a comeback in the second game and even though he was looking in better touch and took the game to wire, it was Sameer who sealed the deal with a smash.
In the first match of the day, mixed doubles pair of Lee Yong Dae/Gabriela Stoeva pulled off a major coup by beating Christinna Pedersen/Tang Chun Man 15-10, 14-15, 15-7 to give Mumbai the early lead into the tie. The match also saw Awadhe getting penalised with a point as it was their trump match.
This marks the end of the Lucknow leg and the PBL now moves to Chennai.