All eyes will be on the Olympic champion Carolina Marin as the Hyderabad Hunters take on the Delhi Dashers in Tie No. 9 of the Premier Badminton League (PBL) 2018 at the Siri Fort Sports Complex in New Delhi on Sunday.
Marin was indisposed in the Hunters’ last outing against the Ahmedabad Smash Masters, which resulted in a 3-4 loss for the Hyderabad franchise. The Spaniard would thus be raring to go in tonight’s tie and lead her side to victory.
It wouldn’t, however, be an easy task as the home team has the World No. 6 Sung Ji Hyun, who has the tools to blunt Marin's aggression and take the game away from her.
While Tian Houwei of the Dashers and Lee Hyun Il of the Hunters have delivered, the same cannot be said for their respective No. 1 men's singles players. Hyderabad's B Sai Praneeth and Delhi's Wong Wing Ki Vincent have both struggled and it will be interesting to see which of them can step up to the challenge tonight. The final outcome of the tie might have a lot to do with the result in the men's singles matches.
In mixed doubles, there will be an exciting battle for the Indian fans when regular mixed doubles partners, Ashwini Ponnappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy square off against each other tonight. Both are coming off losses and will be determined to get the win.
Here is all the information you need to know
Tournament name: Premier Badminton League Season 3
Venue: Siri Fort Indoor Stadium, New Delhi
Date: Sunday, December 31, 2017
Time: Hyderabad Hunters vs Delhi Dashers at 7pm IST
Channel: Star Sports 1/Star Sports 1 HD
Livestream information: Star Sports Hotstar
The squads:
Hyderabad Hunters - B Sai Praneeth, Lee Hyun Il, Rahul Yadav Chittaboina, Carolina Marin, Rasika Raje, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Yoo Yeon-Seong, Markis Kido, Pia Zebadiah Bernadeth, Anoushka Parikh.
Delhi Dashers - Wong Wing Ki Vincent, Tian Houwei, RMV Gurusaidutt, Sung Ji Hyun, Shreyanshi Pardeshi, Vladimir Ivanov, Ivan Sozonov, Ashwini Ponnappa, Pranaav Jerry Chopra, Arathi Sara Sunil.