Indian Badminton League, Day 5
Zee Media Bureau
On the fifth day of the inaugural Indian Badminton League, Hyderabad Hotshots thrashes the strong team of Pune Pistons 4-1. Apart from the Indian badminton queen Saina Nehwal, Tanongsak, Men’s pair of V Shem Goh/Khim Lim and Ajay Jayaram also made sure that their franchisee wins the tie against Pune Pistons.
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Hyderabad Hotshots thrashes Pune Pistons 4-1
Match 5: Mixed Doubles - Nielsen/Ponnappa beats Goh/ Gadre 21-11, 21-14
Finally, a consolation win for Pune Pistons. Pune Pistons pair of Nielsen and Ponnappa defeated Goh and Gadre in straight sets to won a sole match in the tie against Hyderabad Hotshots.
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Match 4: Men’s singles - Tanongsak beats Saurabh Varma 21-17, 21-18
In the first set Pune Pistons’ Saurabh gave some fight to Tanongsak of Hyderabad Hotshots till the 10 points but after that Tanongsak never gave him any easy points and pocketed the first set 21-17. In the second Saurabh failed to maintain his lead and once Tanongsak equaled the scores at 14 all, he just flew away with the second set by 21-18. With this win Hyderabad are now 4-0 up against the Pune franchisee. In the final mach where Pune will look for a win, Hyderabad will try to make it a clean sweep.
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Match 3: Men’s doubles -- V Shem Goh/Khim Lim beats Rupesh/ Sanave Thomas 21-19 21-16
After a tough fight in the first set Shem Goh and Khim Wah of Hyderabad Hotshots took first set 21-19. In the second Rupesh Kumar and Sanave of Pune Pistons once again faltered and lost back-to-back sets. This time the score line was 21-16. With this win Hyderabad Hotshots won the tie against Pune Pistons in three straight sets.
With two consecutive wins Hyderabad Hotshots are at the driving seat after first two matches. To win this tie Pune Pistons has to win all three games now.
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Match 2: Women’s singles – Saina Nehwal beats Juliane Schenk 21-17, 21-19, 11-6
Set 3: In the third set Saina took the lead of two points to make it 3-1. With a cross court smash she earned another point. Long rally and finally Schenk managed to pull one back 4-2. Unforced by Saina and its 4-3. Extreme out by Schenk and Saina took two points lead 5-3. Saina judged it well and another point to Saina. Before going for the break it was 6-3 in Saina’s favor. Schenk pulled one back. But in the next point Schenk did a unforced error to make it 7-4. Schenk took a point after a long rally – 7-5. World-class match between top two shuttlers. Unforced by Schenk and Saina took the lead of three points. One more point for Saina and its 9-5. Schenk pulled one back. But again Schenk done two unforced errors to handover the set and game to Saina. Saina won this set 11-6.
Set 2: In the second set Schenk took the lead of 2-1. Miss judgment by Schenk and a point to Saina. Schenk took the next point with the help of her powerful smash. And after a fine rally Saina earned a point to make it 3-3. Schenk then took two consecutive points to make it 5-3. Saina pulled one back by a smash. Still Schenk was leading by one point 4-5. And two points by Saina means she took the lead in the game for the very first time to make it 6-5. Match was well poised. Saina hit a bodyline smash to make it 7-6 before going for the first break. Saina started dominating the game by leading 9-6. Then Schenk pulled one back before Saina smashed it to swell her lead 11-8. Schenk earned a few to make it 12-13. And after a long rally Schenk equaled the score line 13-13. And before going for the second break it was 14-13 in Saina’s favour. Schenk took the lead by earning two back-to-back points – 15-14. But with a smash Saina equaled the score line. Both the players again shared one point each to make it 16-16. Unforced by Schenk and point went to Saina. With a cross court smash Schenk make it 17-18. Saina was still leading with a point. It was again neck-and-neck as its 19-19. Saina took the next point to make it 20-19. And Saina finally earned another point to won the second set by 21-19.
Set 1: It’s a high profile match. Both the players are among the top five shuttlers in the world. Schenk is world number three on the other hand Indian badminton queen is at number four. It was two all in the first set. Schenk then took two back to back points to make it 5-3. Saina pulled one back to make it 5-4. And then she made it 5-5. Before going for the first break it was 7-5 in Schenk’s favour. Schenk took the lead of four crucial points to make it 9-5. Then Saina pulled one back. But then Saina and Schenk shared one point each to make it 10-7. Unforced by Saina and it was 11-7. Schenk took another point with a lovely back hand smash. Before going for the second break it was 14-7. In the break Saina took some advice from Taufik Hidayat. Saina earned a couple of points after break. But then Schenk managed to take the lead of five points to make it 16-11. Saina went for a long rally to earn a point. Saina took two points in a row. Unforced errors by Schenk took the score line to 17-15. And with a smash Saina earned a point. Then Schenk took three consecutive points to reach 19-16. Saina took a point. And with another unforced error Schenk won the first set 21-17.
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Match 1: Men’s singles -- Ajay Jayaram beats Tien Minh Nguyen 21-19, 21-8
It’s a match between experienced Tien Minh Nguyen versus young Jayaram. Tien is world number five. So it won’t be an easy task for Jayaram to beat him. Jayaram took the lead initially to make it 4-1. But later the world number five made a comeback, though before going for the first break the score line was 7-6 in Jayaram’s favour. Jayaram gave a tough fight to Tien. It was neck-and-neck in the first set. Eventually Jayaram won the set by 21-19. In the second set Jayaram used his confidence of first set and forced Tien to do the unforced errors. And at the end thrashed Tien in second set by 21-8. With this win Hyderabad Hotshots is one up in the tie.
First match is between Tien Minh Nguyen of Pistons and Ajay Jayaram of Hotshots. It’s a first IBL tie in Mumbai at the Sardar Vallabh Patel Stadium.
Mumbai: Welcome to the live coverage of Day 5 of the Indian Badminton League (IBL).
Today, Pune Pistons will take on Hyderabad Hotshots. It will be interesting to see whether Pune Pistons continue their winning streak as they are yet to lose any tie.
Despite the presence of star player Saina Nehwal, Hyderabad Hotshots are standing at the fifth position of the points table. The hotshots will be hoping Saina fires in this match as well, like the previous 2 matches.
Key clashes: Saina Nehwal (Hyderabad Hotshots) v/s Juliane Schenk (Pune Pistons)
Squad
Hyderabad Hotshots: Saina Nehwal (India), Taufik Hidayat (Indonesia), Ajay Jayaram (India), V Shem Goh (Malaysia), Tarun Kona (India), Pradnya Gadre (India), Khim Wah Lim (Malaysia), Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (Thailand), Kanthi Visalakshi (India), Subhankar Dey (India)
Pune Pistons: Juliane Schenk (Germany), Ashwini Ponnappa (India), Tien Minh Nguyen (Vietnam), Wee Kiong Tan (Malaysia), Joachim Fischer Nielsen (Denmark), Sourabh Varma (India), Anup Sridhar (India), Sanave Thomas (India), Arun Vishnu (India), Rupesh Kumar (India)
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