With Mumbai Rockets taking on Hyderabad Hunters in the Vodafone Premier Badminton League 2, powered by Maruti Suzuki, all eyes were set on the marquee clash of the tie involving World No.2 Carolina Marin and World No.3 Sung Ji Hyun.
Sung Ji Hyun
Riding on huge expectations to drive their team forward, both the shuttlers displayed amazing grit and determination and dished out an intriguing match with Sung Ji breaking the winning run of Marin with a 11-7, 7-11, 14-12 victory.
Even though it was the local team that was in action, the near capacity crowd did not shy away from cheering whenever Marin of Hunters scored a point.
In the first game, it was Sung Ji of Mumbai who started on the aggressive note and dominated the tie. Marin tried to recover whenever possible, but Sung Ji did not let her off the hook to win the first game 11-7.
In the second game, Marin known fror her strong resiliency bounced back to win the second game 11-7.
With the match tied 1-1, both the players rolled out their A-game and did give anything to each. It was a neck t neck battle with both the players scoring on regulation. However, it was Sung Ji held on to her nerves to win the game 14-12 to win the game as well as the match to help her team take 2-0 advantage.
Starting the tie, it was Lee Yong Dae and Nipithphon Puangpuapech of Rockets taking Tan Boon Heong and Wee Kiong Tan of Hunters in the men’s doubles clash. It was expected to be a close match but the Rockets proved too much for their opponent and won the match 11-9, 11-5 in a rather easy fashion.
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