Lucknow: Mumbai Rockets defeated Awadhe Warriors 4-3 to sit at the second position on the points table in the second edition of the Premier Badminton League (PBL) at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium here on Friday.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal of Awadhe Warriors, who got her rhythm back, won her high profile clash against Sung Ji Hyun of Mumbai Rockets to pull one back for her team after they went down 2-0. With the clash extremely crucial for the teams as the winner would race to the top of the leaderboard, the Hyderabadi shuttler defeated her opponent 12-10, 4-11, 11-5.
The match started on an even note with both the players winning points on regular intervals. Both the players kept a strong hold and did not let each other open up a huge lead. But it was eventually Saina who got the better off Sung Ji to take the first game 12-10.
In the second game, Saina seemed a bit lost in the middle and Sung Ji did good to capitalize on her opponent`s mistake to win the game 11-4 to restore parity. With the match tied, it was the 26-year-old Indian shuttler, who regained her focus and was class apart in the final game. She did not give her opponent any chance to settle in the game and won the decider in a rather dominating fashion to win her second match of the league as well as maintain her unbeaten run here.
It looked like after Saina`s victory, Warriors will make a comeback in the match but H.S. Prannoy of Rockets won his trump match 14-12, 9-11, 11-8 to make the score 4-1 in his team`s favour. Earlier in men`s single tie, Ajay Jayaram of Mumbai Rockets defeated his compatriot Kidambi Srikanth of Awadhe Warriors 5-11, 15-14, 11-5. Starting the match, Srikanth was quick to get off the block and raced to a lead of 5-2. It looked like the Guntur-born player will have it easy but Jayaram fought back to take three consecutive points to tie the score 5-5. Srikanth then took one more point to go into the mid-game break 6-5. After the break, he started from where he had left and dominated the proceedings. His movement on the court was superb and the way he mixed his shots was immaculate and the Mumbai player ran out of answers.(PTI)