HYDERABAD, DEC 28,
It is never easy to step on to the court as a stand-by to a champion like Saina Nehwal, who for the second match in-a-row in this edition, opted to sit out. It was officially disclosed later that Saina had decided to take rest due to a shin injury.
But, the 22-year-old Rituparna Das responded in style, winning the crucial trump match for North-Eastern Warriors and help the team drub two-time finalist Mumbai Rockets in the Hyderabad-leg of PBL-4 at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium here on Thursday.
The issue was decided 4- (-1) in favour of Warriors even before World No. 12 Sameer Verma of Mumbai took on former Asian Games silver medallist Tian Houwei in the penultimate match of the evening.
Warriors was off a convincing start with the mixed doubles combine of Ha Na Kim and Min CHun Liao getting the better of Pia Zebadiah and Kim Gi Jung.
Then, it was the turn of World No. 55 Tanongsak Saensmboonsuk of Warriors to score a shock win over World No. 18 Anders Antonsen in what was the trump match for Mumbai.
Remarkable fightback
For someone who was outplayed in the first game, Antonsen fought back remarkably in the second with some telling smashes and often pushed the rival to the flanks to pick points.
In the decider too, Antonsen was leading 7-4 before his game drifted apart. A stroke of luck too favoured the Thai player Tanongsak at 9-11 when his return saw the shuttle roll over the net gently.
Then, a service-fault by Tangongsak gave a breather to the opponent but soon Antonsen himself committed a service-fault to the delight of the Warriors camp.
Tanongsak then came up with a couple of big smashes to turn the tables and win the match.
In the women’s singles, Rituparna scored a creditable win over Shreyanshi Pardeshi. What was pleasing was the way she changed gears in the decider after the scores were tied 11-11.
At 14-12, Rituparna did give some hope to the opponent with a service-fault but was quick to recover as, to her delight, the opponent’s returns were erratic. Rituparna soon finished the contest off in style with a down-the-line smash.
