Awadhe register third straight win despite Saina's absence

Awadhe missed the services of star marquee player Saina Nehwal, who had revealed yesterday that she is “in bad shape”. 

In the first match, Vrushali had an easy outing against Supanida,  winning 15-7, 15-11 to give Awadhe a winning start.

Awadhe placed their trump on the second match, the doubles event pitting Bodin Issar and Cai Yun against Hyderabad's Markis Kido and Carsten Mogensen. The pair rewarded the faith reposed by the team with a 15-10, 15-12 straight-sets win to make it 3-0 for Awadhe.

The third match saw two Indian players, Parupalli Kashyap of Hyderabad and Awadhe's Sai Praneeth face each other. Praneeth started out erratic as he was rushing into his shots to gift points to Kashyap. On the other hand, Kashyap exhibited brilliant net play moving his opponent around the court and setting him up well before delivering the winning shots. At 5-2, he played a complete game making a diving return off Praneeth's smash before setting him up with a drop and then finishing with a smash into Praneeth's backhand. After a brief fightback by Praneeth from 2-10 to 6-10, Kashyap strung up a five-point rally to close the set at 15-6.

Praneeth started out with two unforced errors in the second set and was soon trailing at 1-4. With things seemingly going the way of the first set, Praneeth managed to turn his game around by completely dominating the net and cutting down on the errors. He soon managed to get his attack going and overtook Kashyap before leaving him in the wake as he raced to wrap up the set at 15-8 with an emphatic jump smash.

With the game on the balance, Praneeth upped the ante with aggressive gameplay, advancing to the net often and he was well-rewarded as he raced to a 9-4 lead. As Kashyap started succumbing to the pressure, Praneeth managed to reach match point before giving up another point. At 5-14, he produced a splendid behind-the-back return before closing the match with a net smash to give Awadhe an unassailable 4-0 lead.

With the last two matches rendered inconsequential, Lee Chong Wei took to the court to give Hyderabad some consolation against Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk amid a reception from the crowd generally reserved only for the Indian players. After trialing initially, Chong Wei took the lead at 5-4 as Tanongsak committed multiple unforced errors and soon wrapped up the set at 15-8.

Tanongsak put up a good fight in the second as the lead changed five times by the time the score read 7-6 in favor of Chong Wei. Chong Wei stepped up the gas from here on with a body smash straight at Tanongsak to make it 8-6 and then raced to a 15-9 win.

Despite the decision being foregone, Jwala Gutta and Markis Kido put up a great fightback in the final tie after losing the first set. They saved a match point in the second set and then wrapped up the decider 15-10 to take Hyderabad closer at 3-4 on the overall tally.

Scores:

Hyderabad Hunters vs Awadhe Warriors 3-4

Supanida Katethong vs Vrushali 7-15, 11-15

Kido/ Mogensen vs Yun/ Issara* 10-15, 12-15

Parupalli Kashyap vs Sai Praneeth 15-6, 8-15, 5-15

Lee Chong Wei* vs Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk 15-8, 15-9

Kido/Gutta vs Issara/ Pedersen 12-15, 15-14, 15-10