Time has flown by and we are already halfway through the league stage of Premier Badminton League 2020. The 21-day badminton extravaganza has witnessed a few scintillating ties which were decided in the very final match while there have been a couple of one-sided contests as well. The 11th Day of PBL will witness a double header.
The 11th tie of PBL 2020 is set to be a blockbuster clash between Pune 7 Aces and Chennai Superstarz. The 2017 winners will be featuring in their 4th tie of the season whereas it will be Pune's 3rd tie.
Chennai began their campaign with a thumping 5-2 win over Hyderabad Hunters. This was followed up by a closely-contested 4-3 win over Mumbai Rockets and then another 4-3 win against defending champions Bengaluru Bulls. All three of these ties were played at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai and the Vijaydeep Singh-coached unit capitalized fully on the home advantage.
By virtue of their stellar run in the competition thus far, the Superstarz are at the top of the points table with 13 points. All of their players have been impressive and only Gayathri Gopichand is yet to register a win in the competition.
Pune 7 Aces have also been brilliant so far. They had a comfortable 5-2 victory against Mumbai Rockets in the opening tie. Chirag Shetty and Hendra Setiawan won their Men's Doubles match, Rituparna Das was impressive in her women's singles triumph, and Kean Yew Loh also displayed some stunning strokes in his 2-0 win over Parupalli Kashyap.
Kazumasa Sakai was the only Aces player who failed to register a win against the Rockets. The Mixed Doubles pair of Chris and Gabby Adcock are also a huge strength for the Pune-based franchise and are expected to play a pivotal role in the remainder of the campaign.
The 7 Aces then went on to defeat Bengaluru Raptors 4-3 in their next tie. Kazumasa Sakai produced the goods this time around and won his singles encounter against Ansal Yadav. Pune won their trump match in the Men's Doubles category. Shetty and Setiawan share a tremendous understanding on court and are the team to beat this season.
Chris and Gabby Adcock also registered a win in the mixed doubles category but Loh lost his match to Sai Praneeth while Rituparna Das faltered against World Number 2 Tai Tzu Ying. Regardless, Pune emerged victorious in the overall tie. They are now in the 3rd position on the table with 9 points on board.
Key Battles
Hendra Setiawan and Chirag Shetty will likely lock horns with Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Sumeeth Reddy. This men's doubles fixture promises a lot of fireworks.
Lakshya Sen will either take on Sakai or Loh in his singles match and this also promises to be an interesting tie. Meanwhile, Gayathri Gopichand will look to finally break her losing streak when she takes on Rituparna Das.
Here is all the information you need to know about Day 11, PBL 2020 Schedule:
Tie: Pune 7 Aces vs Chennai Superstarz
Tournament: Premier Badminton League Season 5
Venue: G. M. C. Balayogi SATS Indoor Stadium, Hyderabad
Date: 30 January 2020
Time: 3:30 PM IST onwards
Head-to-head: Pune 7 Aces 0 - 1 Chennai Superstarz
Where to watch the matches in India?
Pune 7 Aces vs Chennai Superstarz will be telecast LIVE on Star Sports 1 and Star Sports 1 HD.
PBL Day 11 Live stream details
Live Stream for PBL Day 11 will be available on Hotstar.com
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