MATCH PREDICTION: Awadhe Warriors all set to win their second home game over Bengaluru

AWADHE WARRIORS will play their last home game against Bengaluru Top Guns today at the Babu Banarasi Das Badminton Stadium in Lucknow. The Warriors, high on confidence with their previous win, will look to win their second and final tie at home for their fans, while the Top Guns will want to learn from their mistakes and try to win their first match in the league.

Last night the Top Guns had a very close encounter against Mumbai Rockets, losing the match 3-4. They need to prove their potential and work as a team in order win points and matches.

Arvind Bhatt (Top Guns Coach) will have to re-work his strategy and get his doubles pair to perform and win those crucial points for the team.

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 BENGALURU TOP GUNS

The following shuttlers are likely to play against each other in their respective categories; Men's singles: Sai Praneeth (Awadhe) against Anand Pawar (Bengaluru); Men's doubles: Cai Yun/Bodin Issara (Awadhe) against Khim Wah Lim/Hoon Thien How (Bengaluru); Women's singles: Saina Nehwal (Awadhe) against Suo Di (Bengaluru); Men's singles: Tanongsak (Awadhe) against Srikanth (Bengaluru); Mixed doubles: Hendra Gunawan/Maneesha (Awadhe) against Blair/Ponnappa (Bengaluru).

It remains to be seen which matches each team will nominate as their Trump match. Praneeth will be beaming with confidence after beating Rajiv Ouseph of Delhi and having more experience than Pawar, the former should win this tie comfortably.

The Warriors will not want to waste one more Trump on Saina, and this time they should be nominating their men's doubles pair of Yun/Issara who played the best men's doubles match against Delhi. If Yun/Issara continue performing the way they did, two points will be in the bag for the Warriors.

Saina should have another win to her name in tonight's match but it wouldn't be an easy one. Taking into consideration the previous two matches, Suo Di has been impressive and she fights till the end. This should be an interesting tie.

In the other men's singles tie, Srikanth and Tanongsak have two games each to their name in their head-to-head count at the international level. But Srikanth has been on a roll in this league, beating Lee in the first match and Prannoy last night. Therefore this is likely to be the Trump match for them and it will end in the Top Guns' favour.

Blair and Ponnappa will be playing the mixed doubles contest. Though they lost against Mumbai, the Top Guns pair hold the upper hand over the Warrios duo.

It will be yet another close encounter for the Top Guns, but taking into consideration their performance and experience, the Warriors are unlikely to disappoint their home fans.