Prannoy beats Kashyap to give early advantage to Mumbai Rockets

H.S Prannoy continued his stellar form in the Vodafone Premier Badminton League, Season 2, powered by Maruti Suzuki as he beat his compatriot P Kashyap of Chennai Smashers in the opening game of the tie to give Mumbai Rockets a 1-0 advantage at the Koramangala Indoor Stadium today.

Prannoy

The win not only helped Mumbai seize the initial momentum but also saw Prannoy end the league stages unbeaten winning five out of five matches.

Coming into the match with great confidence, Prannoy started the opening game on an attacking note and blitzed his way to a comfortable 4-1, but Kashyap caught up to reduce the gap to 3-4. Both the players kept on winning points in regular intervals and at one point were tied 8-8 and it looked like the game could go in anyone’s favour. However, it was Prannoy who held on to his nerve and won the game 11-9.

With a game down, Kashyap came out a more aggressive player in the second game and took a 3-0 lead. Prannoy tried to comeback but it was Kashyap who was in a better position to win the game. With 9-7 up, it should have been easy for Kashyap to wrap up the game but his opponent showed great resiliency and from a cusp of a defeat won the game 13-11 to win the match.

In the next match of the tie, mixed doubles pair of the Chris Adcock/Gabrielle Adcock of Smashers will take on Chirag Shetty and Nadiezda Zeiba of Rockets in the former’s trump match, while the third match will see Tommy Sugiarto take on Ajay Jayaram in the second men’s singles match. The fourth match will see the heavyweights PV Sindhu and Sung Ju Hyun clash in the women’s singles match and the last match will be the men’s doubles match between the pair of Chris Adcock/Mads Pieler Kolding and Lee Yong Dae and Nipitphon Puangpuapech. The last match will be a trump match for the Rockets.

Points Tally