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Saina Nehwal will look to lead the Awadhe Warriors to a win when her team squares off against the two-time runners-up Mumbai Rockets at the Babu Banarasi Das U.P. Badminton Academy in Lucknow on Thursday. This is the last match in the Lucknow leg and the home team will look to put in an all-round show to make it a memorable finish for their side.
The Warriors are the table-toppers right now and look an absolute threat for all their opponents. Their last outing was a proof of how determined they are to lay their hands on the PBL trophy for the first time.
The Lucknow franchise prevailed over the dangerous Ahmedabad Smash Masters 4-3 in a thriller that had the crowd on the edge of their seats. Saina did lose to the irrepressible World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying, but the way she fought back in the second game bodes well for the upcoming 2018 season on the BWF circuit, and of course, for tonight's PBL 2018 tie where she takes on the World No. 11 Beiwen Zhang.
Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap brought forth his resilience and courage and saved as many as four match points to pull off a win over Ahmedabad's Sourabh Verma. Both their men's doubles and mixed doubles pair delivered wins as well. However, the Warriors do have a cause of concern and that is regarding the form of the World No. 3 men's singles shuttler, Kidambi Srikanth.
Srikanth hasn't really managed to come to the party and his straight-game defeat to the national champion, HS Prannoy on Tuesday was quite a meek surrender. He would face a stern test against the World No. 5 Son Wan Ho today. It goes without saying that if Srikanth does not step up to the challenge, a defeat might be on the cards.
The other men's singles match too is expected to be an enthralling affair with Kashyap facing the Syed Modi International champion, Sameer Verma.
Mumbai faced a humiliating 6-(-1) defeat at the hands of the Bengaluru Blasters in their last assignment and they will very much be under pressure tonight.
Here is all the information you need to know
Tournament name: Premier Badminton League Season 3
Venue: Babu Banarasi Das U.P. Badminton Academy, Lucknow
Date: Thursday, January 4, 2018
Time: Awadhe Warriors vs Mumbai Rockets at 7pm IST
Channel: Star Sports 1/Star Sports 1 HD
Livestream information: Star Sports Hotstar
The squads:
Awadhe Warriors - Srikanth Kidambi, Parupalli Kashyap, Harshit Aggarwal, Saina Nehwal, Sai Uttejitha Rao Chukka, Hendra Setiawan, Or Chin Chung, Tang Chun Man, Christinna Pedersen, Mahima Aggarwal.
Mumbai Rockets - Son Wan Ho, Sameer Verma, Beiwen Zhang, Lee Yong Dae, Tan Boon Heong, Arjun MR, Tarun Kona, Gabriela Stoeva, Kuhoo Garg, Sanyam Shukla.
