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The Hyderabad Hunters have finally started familiarizing themselves with their winning ways in the Premier Badminton League as the action has shifted to the Babu Banarasi Das Badminton Academy, Lucknow. The P V Sindhu led battalion downed the challenge of the Awadhe Warriors ably and just notched 2 points on the board. There is still a long way to go for the Hyderabad Hunters if they plan to get their hands on the title and move up from the bottom spot of the rankings table.
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The first rubber of the day saw rising star Sourabh Verma taking on 26-year-old Subhankar Dey and secured a smashing victory against the fellow Indian shuttler. It was a bit of a nail-biter with the rubber stretching to over three games. While Dey appeared inspired and took the first game, the 2019 Syed Modi International finalist, Verma, bounced back and won the following two, seizing a swift victory in 15-14, 12-15, 10-15. With that, the Hyderabad Hunters got off to a positive start.
In the next match, it was the Mixed Doubles pairing of Shin Baek Cheol and Christinna Pedersen from the Awadhe Warriors side who clashed against the experienced duo of Vladimir Ivanov and N. Sikki Reddy. But the Indo-Russian pair dominated Cheol and Pedersen and gave Hyderabad its second victory for the day, in the Trump Match of the Awadhe Warriors. The Hunters won the rubber 12-15, 14-15.
Soon it was time for Hyderabad's captain P V Sindhu to step on court to take things forward. As usual, the reigning World Champion produced a stellar performance was pretty much untouchable by her opponent from the Awadhe Warriors side, Tanvi Lad. Sindhu raced to a 8-1 lead in the first game but Lad was quick to make up and prevented the World No. 6 from dictating all the shots. However, Lad failed to succeed against the Rio 2016 silver medalist as Sindhu rallied to victory 8-15, 8-15.
In an odd turn of events, W.W.K Vincent got the better off Daren Liew who came out to play the Trump Match for the Hyderabad Hunters side. Vincent defeated Liew in straight games to win the the first match for the Awadhe side 15-14, 15-9.
Finally, it once again came down to the Men's Doubles encounter which saw the display of high-quality, gripping badminton from both the sides. The pair of K.S Hyun and S.B Cheol dominated this rubber and left Vladimir Ivanov and Ben Lane grappling for shots often. However, the Awadhe Warriors clinched their second victory of the evening 15-12, 15-8. The Hyderabad Hunters with 3 victories notched have finally been able to come out on top of a tie in the PBL Season 5 and has to gun for more, if they plan to move towards the coveted final prize.
