PBL : Chennai win trumps to enter semis with win over Bengaluru

Chennai decided to hit the ground running as they played their trump right off on Sony Kuncoro against Bengaluru's Sameer Verma. Kuncoro slipped a bit in the second set but managed to win the encounter easily in the decider to take Chennai to a 2-0 lead.

Bengaluru came back in the men's doubles as Hoon How and Joachim Nielsen produced a dominant display to defeat the Chennai pair in straight sets to cut Chennai's lead to one point.

In the third match, Kidambi Srikanth of Bengaluru took on Brice Leverdez. Brice managed to keep up till 4-7, but Srikanth seemed eerily well-composed as he had his attack and movements well in place. Brice, however, was reacting to Srikanth more than going for the attack, and that cost him as Srikanth seemed in no mood to make mistakes today. He rallied from 7-4 to make eight straight points – a body smash at 12-4 that rammed straight into Leverdez's chin summed up his domination in the set.

Leverdez was lucky to manage catch-up until 5-5 in the second set, given the tentative play he displayed and Srikanth's form. But he produced flashes of brilliance to go up 10-7 and 11-10, even as Srikanth faltered at the net repeatedly. However, Srikanth produced a great attacking comeback to win the set 15-12 with a jump smash from the backcourt on game point.

The scores were now level at 2-2.

The responsibility of breaking the deadlock fell to Chennai's marquee player P V Sindhu, who faced Suo Di in the fourth match. An interesting match was on the cards with Sindhu's, whose reach makes up for an impenetrable defence, matched-up against Suo Di, who loves to attack.

With both players going for broke, the set was a tight affair with multiple interesting rallies from the baseline. Sindhu's unforced errors marked the slight difference as Suo Di led the way until 9-8 with Sindhu trailing within catch-up distance. Sindhu caught up with a well-disguised return smash on Suo Di's next serve to make it 9-9. The double WC bronze medallist then raced ahead to 14-11 as Suo Di was forced to play defensive shots after repeated failures to break through Sindhu's defence before closing out the set.

In the second set, Sindhu was in the driver's seat from the beginning. A confident Sindhu made repeated forays to the net to win points while Suo Di's game saw unforced errors creeping in. After leading 8-3 at the half-way mark, Sindhu accelerated to close out the set at 15-7 to make it 3-2 for Chennai.

With Bengaluru holding back their trump until the end, the final mixed doubles held the answer to who comes out on top. Bengaluru seemed to have gotten it right with Ashwini Ponnappa and Nielsen holding set point at 14-12. But Ponnappa made three crucial errors on the trot to gift the set to the Chennai team. In the second set, Chennai took the lead after lagging behind at 3-5 initially and never looked back.

Chennai Smashers ended the match 4-1 and with it coasted into the semi-finals of the event.

Scores:

Chennai Smashers vs Bengaluru Topguns 4-1

Sony Kuncoro* vs Sameer Verma 15-10, 10,15, 15-8

Pranaav Chopra/ Chris Adcock vs Hoon How/ Joachim Nielsen 7-15, 8-15

Brice Leverdez vs Kidambi Srikanth 4-15, 12-15

P V Sindhu vs Suo Di 15-12, 15-7

Chris Adcock/ Pia Zebadiah vs Ashwini Ponnappa/ J F Nielsen 15-14, 15-12