MATCH PREDICTION: Return of Saina and her trump points will ensure win for Awadhe Warriors

THE LUCKNOW-BASED TEAM AWADHE WARRIORS will play their first home game today in the Premier Badminton League (PBL) against Delhi Acers. The Warriors will look to make a comeback in their home game after their loss against Mumbai Rockets on the opening day in Mumbai, while Delhi Acers will be playing their first match in the league.

Saina Nehwal did not play in the Mumbai leg due to an injury, but she has said that it was healing quickly. It will also be a good chance for the Warriors if she plays as in the women's singles category the Acers lack depth.

Acers are being coached by former international shuttlers Madhumita Bisht, assisted by Siddhant Jain. Bisht has been travelling with the Indian team to international tournaments and therefore knows the game of the shuttlers in her team and understand it well. She herself has had a illustrous career of nearly three decades. She was often hailed as the queen of badminton. She has eight National singles title to her name, and nine doubles and 12 mixed doubles titles. Her experience should benefit the Acers tremendously.

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.

AWADHE WARRIORS vs DELHI ACERS

The following shuttlers are likely to play against each other in their respective categories; Men's singles: Sai Praneeth (Awadhe) against Ajay Jayaram (Delhi); Men's doubles: Cai Yun/Hendra Gunawan (Awadhe) against Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong (Delhi); Women's singles: Saina Nehwal (Awadhe) against PC Thulasi (Delhi); Men's singles: Tanongsak (Awadhe) against Tommy Sugiarto (Delhi); Mixed doubles: Bodin Issara/Christina Pedersen (Awadhe) against Akashya Dewalkar/Gabrielle Adcock (Delhi).

It remains to be seen which matches each team will nominate as their Trump match. Since Awadhe lost their Trump match in the first match, they will aim to use it in a better way in this game. Considering the fact Saina has an upper hand in the women's singles category, Warriors might nominate this as their Trump match and it should be an easy win for the top shuttler against Thulasi.

In the men's singles match, Praneeth and Ajay have equal number of matches won against each other, 1-1. Praneeth, who lost his first singles match against Gurusai, will look to gather himself today. On the other hand, Ajay has had a decent run in 2015, winning the Dutch Open for the second time and the Silver medal at Korea Open, and then at Mexico City GP where he reached the quarter-finals. It is going to be a thriller, but we see Ajay end up on the winning side.

The Acers' men's doubles pair of Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong play together at the international stage. Therefore the Malaysian pair are likely to triumph over the Warriors duo of Yun/Gunawan. Since the Acers have a good chance of winning this match, they are likely to choose this as their Trump match.

In the second men's singles, Tanongsak of Awadhe leads 3-2 in the head-to-head count over Tommy Sugiarto of Delhi at the international level. The Thai had an excellent outing against Prannoy (Mumbai) in Mumbai, and is likely to continue his winning ways.

The mixed doubles pair of Bodin/Christina of Awadhe emerged winners in their first outing against Mumbai and are experienced enough to handle the Acers pair of Gabrielle/Akshay.

The Saina factor and her Trump points will see the Warriors register their first win in this season of the PBL, though a narrow one.