Banga Beats’ hopes of reaching the semi-finals of the Indian Badminton League (IBL) suffered a major blow after being hammered 1—4 by hosts Pune Pistons in a crucial tie, here.
The visitors lost the first four matches before mixed doubles pair of Carston Mogensen and Carolina Marin finally pulled one back to prevent a whitewash, at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Balewadi last night.
After this loss, Banga beats are placed fifth on the table with eight points from one win and two defeats in three ties. They will next play bottom-placed Krrish Delhi Smashers tomorrow in Bangalore before taking on the Hotshots in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
It was a Bangalorean who started the demolition of Banga Beats with Anup Sridhar notching up an upset 21—12 21—18 victory over world number eight Hu Yun of Hong Kong in the first men’s singles to give Pune a 1—0 lead.
World number three Juliane Schenk of Germany then put it across Carolina Marin of Spain 21—20 21—10 in the women’s singles to take Pune to a commanding position.
Trailing 0—2, Bangalore’s Carsten Mogensen and Akshay Dewalkar then took the court but they lost 18—21 18—21 to Joachim Fischer Nielsen and Kiong Tan Wee which allowed the Pistons to take an unassailable 3—0 lead.
Bangalore’s agony continued even after that when their iconic player Parupalli Kashyap squandered a one-game lead to suffer a 21—19 18—21 4—11 shock defeat to Sourabh Verma of Pune in the second men’s singles.
Mixed doubles pair of Carston Mogensen and Carolina finally brought some cheers for their fans as they defeated Pune’s Joachim Nielsen Fischer and Ashwini Ponnappa 20—21 21—14 11—8 in the fifth and final match.
Earlier, Anup was 1—4 down early on but the Bangalorean fought back brilliantly and entered the first break leading 7—5 in the opening game. The 30-year-old then rode on his powerful smashes to outwit Yun and lead 14—7 at the second break, before comfortably pocketing the first game.
Yun once again surged ahead in the second game and lead 7—6 at one stage but Anup did not wilt under pressure and kept breathing down his neck at 12—14 in the second break.
The current world no.129 Indian produced a number of powerful smashes to get back into the lead even though Yun was equally remarkable with his game. In the end, it was the Indian who had the last laugh.