New Delhi: The 2017-18 Premier Badminton League (also known as Vodafone PBL for sponsorship reasons) is the fourth edition of India’s professional badminton league which started on 23 December 2017 and will end on 14 January 2018.
In the tie between Chennai Smashers and Mumbai Rockets that took place on Wednesday, women’s singles World No. 3 PV Sindhu fought back from a game down to beat Mumbai Rockets’ Zhang Beiwen 12-15, 15-7, 15-9 to give her team a much needed 2-1 edge before Chennai Smashers eked out a 4-3 victory.
Mumbai Rockets’ Lee Yong Dae and Tan Boon Heong got off to a strong start for their team by defeating Chennai Smashers’ pair of Sumeeth Reddy and Lee Yang with the final tally of 15-9, 15-6 and bagged the first point for their team.
World No. 24 Brice Leverdez of France also made a brilliant personal debut for Chennai Smashers as he defeated World No. 30 Sameer Verma to win 15-14, 10-15, 15-14 in the exciting first men’s singles match.
After Sindhu’s match, men’s singles World No 5 Son Wan Ho was then featured in Mumbai’s Trump match and demolished Thailand’s Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk in the second men’s singles match with a 15-11, 15-5 win to make it 3-2 in favor of Mumbai Rockets.
The tie went down to wire when Chris and Gabrielle Adcocks playing the Trump match for Chennai Smashers. The couple from England notched up a hard fought victory against Gabriela Stoeva and M.R. Arjun 15-9, 13-15, 15-9 in a mixed doubles contest to lead their team to a 4-3 victory, which was also their team’s maiden win of the season.
