PBL 2018: Chennai Smashers vs Mumbai Rockets match preview, schedule and live telecast information

The Chennai Smashers and the Mumbai Rockets will be squaring off on the first day of the Delhi leg at the Premier Badminton League (PBL) 2018 on Wednesday. This is a rematch of last year’s enthralling final, which the southern franchise won by the narrowest of margins, 4-3.

However, the two teams had a reversal of fortunes in the Guwahati leg of the PBL, that concluded yesterday. While PV Sindhu’s Chennai fell to a 3-4 defeat at the hands of the Awadhe Warriors, the Mumbai team hammered the Delhi Dashers 4-1.

The pressure is thus on the yellow brigade to make a good start to the Delhi leg, so that they can still be in contention for a successful defence of their title. World No. 3 and World Championships silver medallist PV Sindhu is the biggest star of the tie and would hope to inspire her team to victory.

But for that to happen, the rest of the Chennai squad need to perform. Chris Adcock and Gabrielle Adcock would be the ones they would be looking up to in the mixed doubles section. The World No. 5 combine lost a nail-biting match to the Awadhe Warriors in three gruelling games and would be itching to get a much-needed win.

They would, however, not have it easy against the pair of Lee Yong Dae and Gabriela Stoeva, who notched up a win over the Delhi Dashers.

In men’s singles, World No. 5 Son Wan Ho of the Mumbai Rockets would be the favourite in his clash against the 17th ranked Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk. Sameer Verma too looked very good when he upset World No. 15 Wong Wing Ki Vincent of the Dashers. Chennai’s Brice Leverdez would thus have quite a challenge on his hands.

The men’s doubles would be one absorbing battle between Mumbai’s Lee Yong Dae/Tan Boon Heong and Chennai’s Chris Adcock/Yang Lee. Both are coming into this match on the back of a win in the Guwahati leg.

Here is all the information you need to know

Tournament name: Premier Badminton League Season 3

Venue: Siri Fort Complex, New Delhi

Date: Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Time:

Chennai Smashers vs Mumbai Rockets at 7.30pm IST

Channel: Star Sports 1/Star Sports 1 HD

Livestream information: Star Sports Hotstar

The squads:

Chennai Smashers - Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk, Brice Leverdez, Aditya Joshi, Daniel Farid, PV Sindhu, Vrushali Gummadi, Yang Lee, B Sumeeth Reddy, Chris Adcock, Gabrielle Adcock.

Mumbai Rockets - Son Wan Ho, Sameer Verma, Beiwen Zhang, Lee Yong Dae, Tan Boon Heong, Arjun MR, Tarun Kona, Gabriela Stoeva, Kuhoo Garg, Sanyam Shukla.