While it was all fun and games on the promotion front, Indian Badminton League’s Banga Beats geared up for the next task at hand with renewed vigour.
They suffered a heart-breaking 2-3 loss to Mumbai Masters in their opening tie in Delhi, but the Vimal Kumar-coached side, riding on the back of some inspiring performances from Parupalli Kashyap and Spain’s Carolina Marin, eased past Awadhe Warriors 4-1 to move to fourth position with seven points from two outings in the six-team league.
Mumbai Masters (11), Hyderabad Hotshots (11) and Pune Pistons (9) are ahead of Beats but they have all played a game more, and if the Bangaloreans are to make it to the semifinals, they will need to win their next two encounters against Pune (August 23) and Delhi Smashers (August 25) respectively.
“We want to take the next matches one at a time. The next match is against Pune Pistons and it is very crucial and we want to do well and make it to the semifinals. So far the league has been very good, there is a lot of excitement,” said Banga Beats coach Vimal during the team’s practice session at the Karnataka Badminton Association on Wednesday.
Vimal was also unsure of the combination that the team would use against Pune and said they would come out with a teamafter a meeting with the entire team before the start of their tie.
Beats’ icon player Parupalli Kashyap was of the opinion that they stand a good chance against Pune but they will need to guard against complacency if they are to make it to the next round. “Yeah, it will be a tight match. They also have good singles and doubles players. We stand a chance. On paper, if you consider the rankings and caliber of the teams, we have a very strong team. But, it depends on how you perform on that day. The win in Lucknow was important as Lucknow is a strong team. It's going to get tougher from here, but Lucknow was a good lesson on how to handle pressure,” the quarterfinalist in the World Championship said.
Meanwhile, Banga Beats announced their tie-up with mobile-based social network provider for live sport PlayUp on Wednesday.
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