Awadhe notch up easy victory

Badminton PBL

 India’s ace shuttler Saina Nehwal notched up a thrilling three-game win in Awadhe Warriors’ trump match to guide her team to a comfortable win over Bengaluru Top Guns in the Premier Badminton League (PBL) here on Wednesday.

Mixed doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Kim Wah Lim and men’s singles player Sameer verma won their respective matches to give Bengaluru a 2-0 lead but Tano­ngsak Saensomboonsuk of Th­ailand notched up a stunning win over K Srik­anth in a Ben­galuru’s Trump match to bring Awadhe Warriors back into the contest at 1-1.

Saina then defeated Suo Di of Thailand in their trump match to take an unassailable 3-1 lead over Bengaluru Top Guns in the five-match tie.

Starting the proceedings, Ashwini and Kim eked out a thrilling 15-13, 11-15, 15-13 win over Bodin Issara and K Maneesha to start Bengaluru’s campaign on a positive note.

Sameer then stunned Sai Praneeth 15-13, 15-14 in a gruelling men’s singles contest to make it 2-0 in Bengaluru’s favour.

In the second men’s singles, Bengaluru placed their faith on Srikanth in their trump match but Tanongsak stunned the World No 9 15-11, 15-8 to reduce their lead to 1-1. Srikanth lagged 6-8 in the first game but he soon drew level at 10-10 and then wrested control. But the left handed player played an extraordinary shot to draw level and again lead at 12-11 with a net play.