MATCH PREDICTION: Delhi Acers look to make it two wins in a row over struggling Bengaluru

IT IS THE second home game for the Delhi Acers in the Premier Badminton League (PBL) and they will be looking to end it with a win over Bengaluru Top Guns at the DDA Squash & Badminton Stadium, Siri Fort in New Delhi.

The Acers won with a great margin against Hyderabad on Thursday and will be brimming with confidence and the onus will be on the he Top Guns to bring everything they have to the court to overpower the Aces. Incidentally, the Top Guns are still in search for their first win in the league.

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.

DELHI ACERS vs BENGALURU TOP GUNS

The following shuttlers are likely to play against each other in their respective categories; Men's singles: Tommy Sugiarto (Delhi) against Srikanth (Bengaluru); Men's doubles: Kien/Heong (Delhi) against Lim/How (Bengaluru); Women's singles Thulasi (Delhi) against Suo Di (Bengaluru); Men's singles: Ajay (Delhi) against Sameer (Bengaluru); Mixed doubles: Akshay/Gabrielle (Delhi) against Lim/Ponnappa (Bengaluru).

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

Considering this is the last home match for the Acers, Ajay's match is likely to be the Trump. The World no. 21 holds the upper hand over Sameer and therefore these points will go to the Acers.

The other men's singles' result is also likely to end in Delhi's favour as Tommy holds a lead of 3-1 over Srikanth. Tommy's last night's performance where he beat Lee Chong Wei for the first time will also be a morale-booster.

Bengaluru are likely to choose the women's singles match as their Trump as Suo Di is in good form compared to Thulasi. The shuttler from Bengaluru will win the tie and give her team those valuable two points.

The men's doubles pair of Delhi have finally clicked and since they are back in form they will triumph over Lim/How of Bengaluru. Finally, the mixed doubles contest would be a good one to watch. It is likely to fall in Bengaluru's favour as Akshay/Gabrielle have lost two in a row lately.

The Acers, riding high on confidence after last night's win, will do the same against the Top Guns and would want to sign off in front of their home fans in style.