Saensomboonsuk Tanongsak and Saina Nehwal won the trump matches of the evening to propel Awadhe Warriors to a come-from-behind win over Bengaluru Topguns in the Premier Badminton League (PBL) at the BBD Academy Complex here on Wednesday.
>Warriors recorded its second victory, a 4-1 verdict, while Topguns suffered its third loss.
Topguns seized momentum by clinching the keenly-fought mixed doubles encounter.
Trailing 1-4, Khim Wah Lim and Ashwini Ponappa collected six consecutive points to go 8-5 up. They maintained their lead amidst some outstanding rallies till Warriors rode on some fantastic net game from K. Maneesha to make it 13-13. However, the host ended up losing the opening game.
Maneesha excelled with her net shots as Warriors took the second game 15-11.
The home team looked all set to win the match when it led 11-7. Nevertheless, Topguns came back to capture four successive points and relied on Ashwini’s fine placement skills to win the 49-minute thriller.
World No. 46 Sameer Verma stunned 34th-ranked Sai Praneeth 15-13, 15-14 in a neck-and-neck contest.
Tanongsak caused the biggest upset of the evening by outsmarting World No. 9 K. Srikanth 15-11, 15-10 in Topguns’ trump match. Tanongsak’s victory enabled Warriors to neutralise the lead and make it 1-1.
In the Warriors’ trump match, the second-ranked Saina erased a five-point deficit by scoring nine on the trot through well-directed drop shots before pocketing the first game 15-10 against lesser-known Thai shuttler Suo Di.
The result: Awadhe Warriors bt Bengaluru Topguns [Bodin Issara and K. Maneesha lost to Khim Wah Lim and Ashwini Ponappa 13-15, 15-11, 13-15 (0/1); Sai Praneeth lost to Sameer Verma 13-15, 14-15 (0/2); Bengaluru Topguns’s trump match: Saensomboonsuk Tanongsak bt K. Srikanth 15-11, 15-10 (1/1); Awadhe Warriors’ trump match: Saina Nehwal bt Suo Di 15-10, 13-15, 15-8 (3/1); Bodin Issara and Cai Yun bt Hoon Thien How and Khim Wah Lim 15-12, 15-6 (4/1)].
