Smash Masters thrash Dashers in Premier Badminton League

Hyderabad:Ahmedabad Smash Masters continued their impressive run in the Premier Badminton League Season 4, beating Delhi Dashers 4-1 in a largely one-sided contest held at Gachibowli Indoor Stadium on Wednesday.

The Smash Masters took the initial lead in quick time with the Indian mixed doubles pair N Sikki Reddy and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy outplaying Delhi Dashers’ Maneepong Jongjit and Chia Hsin Lee 15-11, 15-10. The Indian pair was clearly in control throughout the match with Sikki dominating the net exchanges while Satwik scoring well with his trademark smashes.

The men’s singles match between Delhi Dashers trump HS Prannoy and Daren Liew saw the Malaysian player using his defense to good effect. He caught Prannoy on the wrong foot with his backhand flicks and cross court smashes to win the first game 15-12. However, the Delhi Dashers captain came back strongly to give a tough fight but couldn’t change his side’s fortunes and lost the encounter 15-12, 15-13.

In the third match between former World no.1 and Smash Masters captain Viktor Axelsen and Dashers’ Tommy



Sugiarto, the first game went to the Dashers’ player 15-12. Axelsen, who started as crowd favourite, pulled back things in the second game to make it 1-1. However, the World No.9 took early advantage in the third game and carried on from there on, winning the contest 15-12, 10-15 and 15-8.

The women’s singles clash between Smash Masters’ trump Kristy Gilmour and Dashers’ Russian player Evgenia Kosetskaya was important for both the sides. Kosetskaya prevailed over Kristy in the first game 15-12. In the second game, both players were not ready to give up and it took three successive smashes by Kristy to take the match into the third game. Meanwhile, Kristy also suffered an injury scare when she fell down while trying to return a sliced drop from Kosetskaya. Following the short break, the trump player held the nerves and helped her side win their second consecutive match and earn two valuable points.

In the final match, the Ahmedabad men’s doubles pair Satwik and Chun Hei Reginald Lee lost to Biao Chai and Sijie Wang 15-9, 9-15, 15-13.