Vodafone Premier Badminton League: Chennai Smashers' fightback raises semis hopes

New Delhi: Chennai Smashers, spearheaded by P.V. Sindhu, took a 2-0 lead over Bengaluru Blasters in the Vodafone Premier Badminton League in Chennai on Monday. Playing their final match of the season at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, Chennai’s grit was evident in the men’s doubles match when Yang Lee and B. Sumeeth Reddy made a sensational turnaround to upset Mathias Boe and Kim-Sa Ran 8-15, 15-14, 1513.

They lost the first game but showed tremendous resilience in the next two games to squeezing out the win, putting their team in the lead. The loss a big blow for the Bengaluru Blasters as they had nominated it as their trump match, which meant they ended up with a negative point (-1). Sindhu then took charge and upstaged Kristy Gilmour 15-9, 15-14. Although the Scottish girl threatened to take the contest into the third game, Sindhu sealed it in a tie-breaker.

Since Chennai had slotted it as a trump match, they ended up pocketing two points and three points overall. The defending champions were at the bottom of the eight-team standings with just nine points before their final league match but the manner in which they fought back has raised their hopes of making it to the last-four stage.