In an inconsequential match with both the teams having already made it to the semifinals, North-Eastern Warriors scored a 4-3 win over Chennai Superstarz in the Premier Badminton League championship at Gachibowli Indoor Stadium here on Tuesday.
It was evident Chennai decided to give the young talent like K. Sathish Kumar and S. Sankar Muthuswamy a feel of what it means to out there on the court in such a high-profile league.
In the first men’s singles match, Kaushal Dharmamer of Warriors got the better of Sathish.
The 23-year-old, trained by former National doubles champion Uday Pawar, scored an easy first-game win, but in the second game was surprised by his 18-year-old opponent’s tenacity.
Then, in the men’s doubles match, B. Sumeeth Reddy combined with Dhruv Kapila for Chennai to down Warriors’ Bodin Isara and G. Krishna Prasad, after the latter put up a terrific fight in the second game.
World No. 30 Kirsty Gilmour won the Trump match for Chennai against 20-year-old World No. 81 Asmita Chaliha, but not before the latter gave glimpses of her talent, having won the South Asian Games gold last year.
Youngest PBL player
For 16-year-old S. Sankar Muthuswamy of Chennai, the youngest ever to play in the PBL, it was a very satisfying outing against World No. 18 Lee Cheuk Yiu.
The young talent impressed many with his solid defence and the court movements too were very good.
With team scores tied three-all, Lee Yong Dae and Kim Ha Na combined well for Warriors to wrap things up 4-3 with an emphatic win over Dhruv Kapila and Sanjana Santosh, latter making her PBL debut.
After this match, both Chennai and Warriors have 22 points each.
The results: North-Eastern Warriors bt Chennai Superstarz 4-3 [Kaushal Dharmamer bt K. Sathish Kumar 15-3, 15-11; Bodin Isara & G. Krishna Prasad lost to B. Sumeeth Reddy & Dhruv Kapila 13-15, 14-15; Asmita Chaliha lost to Kirsty Gilmour (T) 12-15, 11-15; Lee Cheuk Yiu (T) bt S. Sankar Muthuswamy 15-8, 15-11; Lee Yong Dae & Kim Ha Na bt Dhruv Kapila & Sanjana Santosh 15-11, 15-9].