Warriors, Superstarz book semifinals berths in PBL
Hyderabad, Feb. 1: World No. 10 Michelle Li staved off a spirited challenge from Rituparna Das as snotched up a commanding 5-0 win over Pune 7 Aces to seal their semi-final spot at the fifth Premier Badminton League here on Saturday.
The Guwahati-based franchise bagged their third victory in five ties with a fabulous performance that saw them win four of the five matches, while the loss snapped Pune’s three-match winning streak.
Later, Chennai Superstarz notched up a thrilling 4-3 win over Awadhe Warriors to seal their semi-final spot.
The enthralling tie went down to the wire and was decided only in the fifth rubber when Chennai’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and his mixed doubles partner Jessica Pugh beat Awadhe’s Christinna Pedersen and Ko Sung Hyun 15-11, 13-15, 15-14.
Earlier, World No. 32 Lakshya Sen bounced back to winning ways as he beat Subhankar Dey of the Awadhe Warriors 15-7, 15-8 in the first match. This was the former Asian Junior champion’s fourth win in five appearances.
In Warriors’ Trump match, Li was expected to cruise against Das but the World No. 100 displayed remarkable courage under pressure despite losing the first win Das, With game against Li the 8-15. 15-8, has the 13-15, remained resilient 15-13
unbeaten In a spectacular in four ties. turnaround, Das put the former Commonwealth Games gold medallist under pressure with her smart placement of the shuttle before grinding out the second game. A visible injury on her right hand could not deter the 23-yearold whose composure left the crowd in awe. In the tight decider, Das even moved ahead to 11-10 as the match headed to a close finish. Li then dug deep to level the score at 12-12 and then inched ahead to 14-12 to have a couple of match points in hand. Das, who made it to the semi-finals of the Syed Modi International in November, even saved a match point before Li wrapped up the match to take Warriors to win.