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#3 Parupali Kashyap (Chennai Smashers)
When Parupali Kashyap came to the court, there was still a glimmer of hope that Chennai Smashers could sneak into the semi-finals. For that to happen, Kashyap needed to win the trump match against Sai Praneeth.
Kashyap was once India’s number one ranked singles player and after a spate of injuries, his ranking has dropped below 50. But as he has shown in recent times, he is still a very capable player and can get it past higher ranked opponents through superior tactics.
However, in this match, he was thoroughly outplayed by the world number 16 Praneeth and failed to put up any resistance. There were occasions when Praneeth was clearly affected by nerves, especially while trying to close out the first game, but the experienced Kashyap failed to take advantage of that too.
His 11-15, 12-15 straight game loss came as a huge disappointment to many of his fans who would have liked to see a last-ditch effort from the veteran.
#4 Ashwini Ponnappa and Mathias Christiansen (Awadhe Warriors)
Though the table toppers eventually managed to put it across Chennai Smashers in a closely fought tie by 4-3 margin, they would have certainly been disappointed by the manner in which their much vaunted mixed doubles pair of Ponnappa and Christiansen failed to close out a match that was theirs for the taking.
Their opponents were the top British pair of Chris Adcock and Gabrielle Adcock. So, it was expected to be a tough fight between two sets of wonderful players.
The match lived up to its potential when they shared the first two games. In fact, the momentum was with the Awadhe Warriors pair as they had won the second game 15-9. They seemed to continue with the momentum and came within one point of winning the match.
At one point, they led 14-8 and had six match points. Shockingly, the squandered all the match points and surrendered the match. Though a lot of credit must be given to the Adcocks for not giving up and fighting till the end, it was shocking to see the experienced Awadhe Warriors pair make elementary errors in those closing moments.
It was undoubtedly their most disappointing performance in this PBL. They will need to ensure that they do not repeat the same mistake in their semi-final encounter against Bengaluru Raptors.
