PBL 2020 Results Roundup, Day 3: Lakshya Sen, Tommy Sugiarto star as Chennai Superstarz defeat Mumbai Rockets

Premier Badminton League 2020 witnessed another scintillating tie yesterday. The home team Chennai Superstarz defeated Mumbai Rockets 4-3 on the 3rd day of the gala badminton affair. This is their 2nd consecutive win in their season 5 campaign.

In the first encounter of the day, Chennai sent in the mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Jessica Pugh. They were up against Kim Gi-jung and Pia Zebadiah Bernadeth of the Mumbai Rockets. Young Indian shuttler Dhruv formed a great understanding with hid English partner and the two looked at ease on the court. They won the first set comfortably but Jung and Bernadeth stepped up their game in the second set. Eventually, the thrilling tie concluded with Kapila and Pugh winning 15-10 15-14 in straight sets.

Up next in action was the rising Men's singles sensation Lakshya Sen. The 18-year-old was pitted against the experienced Lee Dong Keun of Mumbai Rockets. Sen rose to the occasion and defeated the 2014 Asian Games gold medallist 15-12 15-10. The young Indian ace showed spectacular composure against the South Korean shuttler and helped his team to a 2-0 lead in the overall tie.

Chennai Superstarz chose their Marquee foreign player, Tommy Sugiarto, for their trump match. Current World Number 21 Sugiarto played Parupalli Kashyap in the third match. The first set was neck and neck and the pressure was on the Indonesian as Parupalli won it 15-14.

Being the trump match, Chennai would have got -1 points had they lost it. However, the 2014 World Championships Bronze medallist did not lose his cool and went on to win the second set 15-10. He completely decimated the Indian in the third set and won 15-7. With this win, the home team of Chennai Superstarz took an unassailable 4-0 lead in the tie.

For Mumbai Indians, now it was all about saving grace and bagging some points in the encounter. They played veterans Kim Gi-jung and Kim Sa Rang for the Men's Doubles fixture and also chose it as their trump match. The South Korean pair was locking horns with Sumeeth Reddy and Dhruv Kapila of Chennai. This time the team from Mumbai did not falter and won the tie comfortably with a scoreline of 15-9 15-12.

Shreyanshi Pardeshi (Image Credits - PBL)

The final tie being played on the day was the Women's Singles encounter between youngsters Shreyanshi Pardeshi and Gayatri Gopichand. Daughter of veteran shuttler Pullela Gopichand, Gayatri won the well-contested first set 15-14. However, Mumbai's Pardeshi came into her won to take the second set 15-5. The 21-year-old did not lose her momentum and went on to win the third set 15-13 to defeat Gopichand 2-1 overall.

After the culmination of these interesting matches, Chennai Superstarz won the tie 4-3 and handsomely sit at the top of the points table. Mumbai, with 3 points on board, are tied with the defending champions Bengaluru Raptors on the third position.

There is plenty of action coming up on Day 4 of PBL with the North Eastern Warriors locking horns with Awadhe Warriors.

and PBL Points Table