MATCH PREDICTION: Chennai to smash away the Top Guns for a win in the final match before the knockouts

BENGALURU TOP GUNS play Chennai Smashers in the final match before the knockouts in their home-town at the Kanteerava Indoor Stadium in Bengaluru. The Top Guns will hope to fire away for their first win in the league in front of their home fans. While Chennai would want to get back on the winning ways after they lost their first match against Awahde.

Ashwini Ponnappa and team will have re-work on their strategies in order to beat the mighty Smashers. Chennai are placed third in the table and holds a strong chance of qualifying into the knockouts. On the other hand Bengaluru are at the bottom of the table.

RULES: Each tie comprises of 5 matches -- Men’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Women’s Singles, Mixed Doubles & Men’s Singles.  Each Match will be played as best-of-three games, with each game being a race to 15 points and a sudden death at 14-14. After each team shares the list of players who will be playing the 5 matches and their choice of Trump match, the order of play will be mutually decided by the technical team of PBL & broadcaster Star India before each tie (from a neutral perspective) to keep the schedule unpredictable.

TRUMP MATCH: Each team strategically selects one of the 5 matches that they play in a Tie as their Trump match. In a Trump match, a victory gives the team a bonus point and a loss gives it a negative point. A team cannot put the same player in the Trump matches proposed by them more than twice in the league stage and once in the knockout stage i.e. if team A places 5 trump matches during the league stage, any player can take part in maximum two of those 5 matches. However, the participation of a player in a Trump match proposed by the opponent will not be counted in this maximum 2 criterion.

For scoring in a Trump match, victory in a normal match gives 1 point, loss carries 0 points. In a Trump match, the team that has called for the Trump gets 2 points for victory and -1 for a loss. However, the other team will play this match as a normal match and will either get 1 or 0 points for win or loss respectively. If both the teams place the Trump on the same match, then for both of them +2 or -1 scoring will apply for win or loss respectively.

TFG analyses and predicts the winner of the match based on a possible line-up of players, as the teams have to announce their team and Trump match only an hour before the game.

BENGALURU TOP GUNS vs CHENNAI SMASHERS

The following shuttlers are likely to play against each other in their respective categories; Men's singles: Anand Pawar (Bengluru) against Brice Leverdez (Chennai); Men's doubles: Lim/How (Bengaluru) against Chopra/Chris; Women's singles: Suo Di (Bengaluru) against PV Sindhu (Chennai); Men'singles: Srikanth (Bengaluru) against Kuncoro (Chennai); Mixed doubles: Fischer/Ponnappa (Bengaluru) against Chris/Pia (Chennai).

It remains to be seen which matches each team will nominate as their Trump match.

The head-to-head count between Brice and Anand are levelled at 2-2. But since the Frenchman has found his rhythm after he beat a tough competitor like Tanongsak of Awadhe, he holds the upper hand in performance wise. Anand only played one match so far in the league and did not succeed.

Chopra/Chris are a strong men's doubles pair as compared to Lim/How. The Smashers duo will win this match to give their team those crucial points. Chennai are likely to nominate this as their trump match. Lim/How haven't yet clicked as a pair in the league, they lost all the matches they played.

Suo Di and Sindhu will be meeting for the first time and it will be an exciting match to watch. Considering that Sindhu is in her best form would want to continue her unbeaten run and therefore this match points will go to the Smashers.

The second men's singles match falls in favour of Srikanth. The Indian faces Kuncoro for the first time and since Srikanth has been in good touch as compared to Kuncoro, he is likely to win the match. Srikanth has played a great role for the Top Guns with his individual performances.

The mixed doubles contest would be the trump match for the Top Guns. Fischer is likely to get back in action partnering Ashwini and they as a pair have good understanding of each other's pair. When they play with each other they are a stronger pair to beat. Pia/Chris on the other hand will be getting into the action after losing their trump in the previous match against Awadhe.

Overall, Chennai are a better team as compared to the struggling Bengaluru and therefore they will triumph over the Top Guns to make their chances even more stronger to qualify for the knockouts.