PBL : Prannoy and Gurusaidutt propel Mumbai to crucial win over Hyderabad

In the first match, Hyderabad's Supanida, as usual lost her first set, before coming back to win a thrilling three-setter. The players were tied for the match at 14-14 but Supanida won the sudden death point to make it through.

In the second match, Hyderabad again came out on top with Morgensen and Kido dominating the Mumbai pair to win in straight sets to make it 2-0 for Hyderabad.

Hyderabad, however, lost the momentum with their bet on Parupalli Kashyap. Kashyap, who seems to be struggling with an injury, took to court in Hyderabad's trump match against compatriot and playing partner H S Prannoy. The duo had last faced off in 2014, which Prannoy had won, and it turned out the 23-year old's way today as well.

The game seemed close to call as the players went to 6-6 and then 11-9 in favor of Prannoy. Prannoy, however, pulled ahead on the back of his impressive attacking play to close out the set 15-11.

Prannoy lost the first two points, the second of which was a result of his racquet strings snapping off. The mishap had no effect as Prannoy regained his attacking play with a lean-back cross-court smash to re-take the serve. Kashyap showed glimpses of his attacking prowess with a winner at 5-5 and looked set to take the match to a decider leading 11-8. But Prannoy pulled out a smash whenever he seemed in trouble and managed to overtake Kashyap at 13-13 and eventually won the match. The scores were level now at 1-1, thanks to Hyderabad losing the trump match.

Kashyap seems to have returned physically fit from the injury evidenced by his movement across the court, but he still seems tentative in the middle and low on anticipation in rallies.

Mumbai called its trump in the fourth match with Gurusaidutt taking on newly-crowned Junior World No. 1 Siril Varma from Hyderabad. The young gun showed no fear of the big stage as he reached the half-way mark well ahead of Gurusaidutt with a score of 8-4. With fluid movement across the court and an arsenal of attacking shots, Siril showed a lot of promise until 10-8. However, his inexperience pulled him down as he committed a series of unforced errors to gift the game to Gurusaidutt who won 15-12 eventually.

Losing the first seemed to have done it for Siril as he surrendered the second set 4-15. Mumbai raced ahead to an unassailable 3-1 lead with the win.

In the final tie, Ivanov and Juhl won the mixed doubles comfortably for Mumbai with a 15-8, 15-8 to make it a confortable 4-1 win.

Scores:

Hyderabad Hunters vs Mumbai Rockets 1-4

Supanida Katethong vs Liu Zi Die 13-15, 15-14, 15-14

Carsten Morgensen/ Markis Kido vs Chayut Triyachart/ Vladimir Ivanov 15-7, 15-14

Parupalli Kashyap* vs H S Prannoy 11-15, 13-15

Siril Verma vs R M V Gurusaidutt* 12-15, 4-15

Markis Kido/ Jwala Gutta vs Vladimir Ivanov/ Kamilla Juhl 8-15, 8-15