New Delhi: Saina Nehwal and the mixed pairing of Pradnya Gadre and Ghoh Shem helped Hyderabad Hotshots to beat Awadhe Warriors 3-2 in a thrilling decider fifth and final match of the Indian Badminton League here on Thursday at the Siri Fort Sports Complex.
With this win, Hyderabad bagged four points while Awadhe claimed two points for winning two matches. Being a national holiday the stands were brimming with people for the big match between Saina and PV Sindhu. But all came down to the last match where Hyderabad's mixed duo of Gadre and Shem defeated Awadhe's pair of Markis Kido and Sapsiree Taerattanachai 21-9, 19-21, 11-8.
However, in the much-awaited match of the day, Hyderabad's Saina prevailed over Sindhu of Awadhe 21-19, 21-8 in the second match. The crowd came out in large numbers to witness the big match as Saina completely overwhelmed Sindhu despite getting off to a slow start. At the start of the first game Saina looked off colour and Sindhu raced to a 7-3 lead. At the second strategic break of the first game, Sindhu scored four consecutive points to lead 14-10.
But Saina's approach completely changed after the break as the world No.4 attacked more and bounced back to 16-15. Sindhu, who recently won a bronze at the World Championships showed her brilliance in some of the drop shots she played, but couldn't match to the quality of Saina as she won the first game 21-19.
At the start of the second game, Saina dominated right from the start and moved more swiftly on the court. The change could have been possible with the veteran shuttler Taufiq Hidayat present in the dugout. The London Olympics bronze medallist won four straight points to lead 6-3. Moreover, there was no sign of fight back from Sindhu as the 19-year-old started making lot of unforced errors along with weak returns.
Saina had taken a massive lead of 14-6 at the second break and went on to seal the game 21-8.
In the third match, which was the men's doubles - Awadhe's duo of Mathias Boe and Markis Kido pipped Hyderabad's Malaysian pair of Goh Shem and Wah Lim Khim 21-14, 21-20. With this win, Awadhe opened their account.
After Awadhe being 2-1 down, it was K Srikanth in the second men's singles and fourth tie defeated Hyderabad's Ajay Jayaram 21-17, 21-19 to level 2-2. Both the players fought it out well though trailing at some time or the other. In the first game, Jayaram was trailing 6-14 but hung in there to bring the scores to 17-19 and conceded it 21-17.
However, in the second game it was Srikanth's turn to show some spine as he was trailing 10-16. But he made a good return to level the scores at 18-18 and then at the end winning the game 21-19.
Earlier, Guru Sai Dutt of Awadhe playing the first match of the day lost to Hyderabad's Tanongsak Saemsomboonsuk 21-15, 14-21, 9-11 in 53 minutes. Sai Dutt started the first game on an aggressive and immediately took a lead of 7-2 to eventually win the game 21-15.
But as expected the Thai shuttler in the second game raised the level of play and kept Sai Dutt under the pump to seal it 21-14. The match moved on to the decider game, where it went neck and neck and at one instance Sai Dutt played a forehand smash to level it 9-9. But Tanongsak took the last two points to give his team, Hyderabad a winning start and also 1-0 lead.
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