PBL 2017-18:MATCH REPORT--Ajay & Michelle's clinical performances gave debutants NE Warriors first win of the season
IN THE FIRST TIE in Chennai, saw debutants North Eastern Warriors win their first tie beating Bengaluru Blasters 3-2.
It all started on a good note for Bengaluru as they won their opening match that saw men's doubles in action. Mathias Boe/Kim Sa Ran displayed great show of badminton as they defeated Kim Gi/Shin Baek 15-12, 7-15, 15-12.
Bengaluru had a chance to further their lead as Chong Feng was playing the trump match against Ajay Jayaram. But the Indian looked determined to win his first match of the third season of PBL and give his team the opening points of the tie. He dominated the first game, winning it 15-8 while the second though it saw fight from Feng, he couldn't sustain for long and Ajay won it convincingly 15-13.
Losing the trump put Bengaluru back to zero points while North Eastern Warriors had the 1-0 lead. Now they held a chance to take a good lead as the women's singles contest was the trump for the Warriors.
Michelle Li (Warriors) was up against Kirsty Gilmour. Both put up a great fight but nobody expected Michelle to bounce back after losing the first game 7-15. The loss put immense pressure on her. In the following two games she fought like a true Warrior and rectified her mistakes and lessened the number of unforced errors and with good shots she won 15-14 15-13.
This gave the debutants a sigh of relief as they held a lead of 3-0. The tie almost sealed with two matches remaining.
Viktor Axelsen was up against Tzu Wei Wang in the next match of the tie. While Viktor was looking to get a point on board for the Blasters, on the other hand Wang wanted to extend his team's lead.
And it looked like Wang would be successful in doing so as he won his first game 9-15 but a gritty Axelsen came back stronger to win the following two games 15-13 15-14. With the last match remaining, the Warriors still had the lead 3-1.
In the mixed doubles contest, Manu Attri of Bengaluru was seen for the first time in this season. He along with his partner Sikki Reddy gave their team Bengaluru another point by beating Prajakta Sawant/Shin Baek 12-15, 15-8, 15-9.
And it was a first ever win 3-2 of the season for debutants North Eastern Warriors that displayed great performance.
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