The Premier Badminton League (PBL) has been a cut-throat competition for the teams with young talents taking up the task to perform the best for their team. On Tuesday, Bengaluru Raptors captain Kidambi Srikanth won his fifth match in a row to ensure his team a 5-0 win against Mumbai Rockets. Along with this, Raptors have now brought themselves closer to the semi-finals and have solidified their claim to win the spot.
Bengaluru needed a minimum of four points to place themselves in the top four and they made it possible as they won the first four matches, including their trump match. On the other hand, with Raptors winning the tie, Pune 7 Aces have been knocked out of contention for semi-finals.
World No. 18 Anders Antonsen of Mumbai gave the Bengaluru skipper Kidambi Srikanth a hard time but fell short at the very end in each game as the former World No. 1 sealed a narrow 15-14, 15-13 victory. Even though Antonsen was ten ranking places behind, he did not let the World No. 8 bag the victory easily.
Next came the encounter between Pullela Gopichand Academy training partners Sameer Verma and Sai Praneeth which was a classic clash and eventually, Sai managed to inflict Mumbai with a 12-15, 15-5, 15-13 defeat on their trump.
Earlier in that day, Bengaluru managed a great start after World No. 59 Vu Thi Trang of Raptors defeated 202nd ranked Shreyanshi Pardeshi. While Pardeshi was easily brought down 15-4 in the first match by the Vietnamese, she pocketed the second game 15-11. However, the Raptors’ trump managed to seal the game by finding a 15-7 win.
The former men’s doubles world champions Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan managed to wrap up their opponents Lee Yong Dae and Kim Gi Jung, by a straightforward 15-11, 15-11 win. However, Mumbai managed to make a consolation comeback as the mixed doubles pair of Pia Zebadiah and Kim Gi Jung beat Bengaluru’s Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith 15-14, 15-13.
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