Premier Badminton League: Top Guns, Rockets keen to bounce back

Bengaluru Top Guns will rely on their top singles player K. Srikanth against the Mumbai Rockets.

Having lost their previous ties, Bengaluru Top Guns and Mumbai Rockets will look to bounce back when they lock horns in their second ties of the Premier Badminton League Season Two here on Tuesday.

The Top Guns will expect Kidambi Srikanth to give them the required impetus for the team to bounce back as he is riding high on confidence after beating two-time Olympic silver medallist Lee Chong Wei on Sunday night.

Srikanth vs H.S. Prannoy match is expected to be an exciting encounter with the former holding an edge over his fellow Gopichand Academy trainee, having beaten him twice including a memorable three set win (21-12, 12-21, 14-21) in the 2015 Syed Modi International Badminton Championships.

Though Srikanth is the higher ranked player at world no. 9 than Prannoy, who is ranked 20th, both are touted to be strong Olympic hopefuls for India in the men’s singles category.

The Mumbai Rockets will miss the services of their mixed doubles’ specialist Kamilla Juhl due to international commitments.

The Top Guns will look to take advantage of her absence in the doubles category with the services of their Malaysian mavericks Hoon Thien How and Khim Wah Lim who posed a serious threat to the World no. 4 duo of Carsten Morgensen and Markis Kido at Mumbai in their first encounter, ending their night with a tight loss (15-13, 9-15, 14-15) in the men’s doubles fixture.

The game-changer for the Top Guns could, however, be the mixed doubles pairing between Ashwini Ponnappa and Robert Blair.

Saina puts warriors ahead Saina Nehwal thumped P.C. Thulasi in her first appearance at the PBL, as the Awadhe Warriors led 3-1 over the Delhi Acers.

The Delhi Acers began with a win when Tommy Sugiarto Tommy Sugiarto beat S. Tanongsak of Awadhe 15-13, 15-11.

Saina though came to her team’s rescue winning 15-9, 15-10 to put the Warriors ahead. The tie was the Warriors’ trump match and handed them two points.

Awadhe Warriors’ Bodin Issara and Cai Yun then extended the lead defeating Koo Keat Kien and Tan Boon Heong 15-12, 15-14 in the men’s doubles and effectively sealing the tie.