The Vodafone Premier Badminton League season 2 moved to its second destination—NSCI Mumbai. As usual the tournament got underway with a rousing welcome by the Mumbai crowd, but the loudest cheers were reserved for the global sporting icon Sachin Tendulkar, who is the co-owner of Bengaluru Blasters.
PV Sindhu
Chennai’s PV Sindhu was the cynosure of all eyes, again. In a trump match against Bengaluru’s Cheung Yi, Sindhu looked at her best and made short work of her opponent. The 21-yr-old won the match 12-10, 11-6. With this win Chennai Smashers went up 3-0 against Bengaluru Bulls.
The first game looked close as Sindhu made some errors while playing to the net, but soon shifted her focus to her strength—the baseline game.
Sindhu, who had lost her first encounter against Hyderabad Hunters’ Carolina Marin a couple of days back, looked in total control and dominated the game from the start of the second game.
“This was a good game for me. Though I conceded a lead in both the game, I came back strong. I am happy to get my first win of the season. Against Marin too, I won the first game, but she bounced back wonderfully. In this match, I didn’t look to change much, but stick to my aggressive style of play,” Sindhu said after her win.
“It took me some time to get used to the format, but now everything seems to be under control. I am comfortable playing the 11-point format, and hopefully can win some more matches for my team,” she added.
Earlier in the day, P Kashyap, who is coming after an injury lay-off, displayed his top game against Sourabh Verma in the men’s singles encounter. Both men played deceptive badminton, wherein the points to difficult to come by. The match lasted 24 minutes —quite a long time for the 11 point format. Kashyap emerged winner by 11-8, 11-5 margin, which is not really suggestive of the hard fought battle between the two.
Kashyap’s win could be a good news for the Chennai camp, who was moving on the court swiftly. With many more tough opponents yet to come, Kashyap could come in really handy for the team’s cause.
PBL Facts:
Teams: 6
Cities: Delhi, Mumbai,Bangalore,Lucknow,Hyderabad,Chennai
Venues: Delhi, Mumbai,Bangalore,Lucknow,Hyderabad
Dates: January 1-14 ’2017
Broadcast Partner: Star sports – HD 1 & 3 and SS1 & 3
Ticketing Partner: Book My Show
Format: Best of 3 sets with 11 point sets
No of matches in each Tie: 5
Prize money: 6 cr – winner – 3cr, runner up -1.5cr, 3rd and 4th place finish – 75 lakhs each