PBL: Marin’s Hunters down Sindhu’s Smashers

The second edition of the Premier Badminton League got off to a rollicking start with the marquee clash between Carolina Marin and PV Sindhu at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium here. In a see-saw battle, Hyderabad Hunters rallied to beat Chennai Smashers 4-3.

Though Marin provided the winning start, the hosts struggled in the middle losing two matches before recovering brilliantly to win the last two.

After Marin defeated Sindhu 11-8, 12-14, 11-2, Sai Praneeth (Hunters) went down to Tommy Sugiarto 6-11, 8-11. Chennai had also won their trump match as Adcocks (Chris and Gabrielle) made short work of Satwiksai Rankireddy and Ho Wan Chau 11-7, 11-9. With Chennai leading 3-1 (two points from the trump match win), Rajiv Ouseph provided the lifeline for Hyderabad by defeating T Saensomboonsuk 6-11, 11-8, 11-6.

With two wins each, the last match turned out to be the decider. In the must-win contest, which was also their trump match, Hyderabad’s Malaysian pair Boon Heong Tan and Wee Kiong Tan drubbed Sumeeth Reddy and Mads Pieter Kolding 11-7, 11-8 much to the delight of the packed stadium. Marin, who expected full support from the fans, was right as the crowd from Sindhu’s hometown cheered the Spanish girl throughout the contest.

With little time to recover in the 11-point game, Marin broke free from 6-6 to move to 9-6 and won the first game at 11-8. Killing the rallies in quick time, the Olympic champion led Sindhu for most part of the second game too.

Staring down the barrel at 8-10, Sindhu made a brilliantly rally, saved two match points and pushed the match into the decider by winning it 14-12. But after such a fightback, Sindhu ran out of steam in the third game. Marin started the game with a 5-0 lead and never looked back. She hardly gave time for Sindhu to get the measure of the shuttle.

Marin credit the victory to crowd. “The secret of my victory is the crowd support. I never expected so much support. I think Sindhu was a bit tense as she was playing before the home crowd,” said Marin, adding that the format was tough.

“We have to be very careful in the 11-point format. If we make mistakes there is very little chance to recover,” she added.