Awadhe Warriors crush Hyderabad Hunters 5-0 in PBL

Hyderabad, Jan 3 - Awadhe Warriors opened their Vodafone Premier Badminton League (PBL) campaign in a grand style, thrashing Hyderabad Hunters 5-0 here on Monday.

The tie started with the men's singles clash between B. Sai Praneeth of Hyderabad and Vincent Wong Wing Ki, with the latter winning 11-13, 11-6, 13-11.

Hyderabad pulled level 1-1 when reigning Olympic and world champion Carolina Marin moved past 2012 Games bronze medallist Saina Nehwal 15-14, 11-5.

"It was a great match and obviously it is great to have won. Saina is a great player and to beat a player like her is always a nice feeling. And also I would like to thank the fans for the support they have shown the team and it helped me to perform better," Carolina said after the match.

Saina said: "It was little too difficult to control the shuttle and it did have an impact on my game. Marin had a slight advantage over me because she played here yesterday and had better knowledge of the conditions. But taking away nothing from her, she played well and deserved to win.

"Even I am happy with my performance and gave a strong fight in the first game and I was overall satisfied. I am confident to bouncing back."

With the score tied 1-1, Awadhe's mixed doubles pair of Bodin Issara and Savitree Amitrapai won their 'Trump Match' against Hoi Wah Chau and R. Satwiksairaj to help the visitors go 3-1 up.

In the next match, Kidambi Srikanth of Awadhe beat Rajiv Ouseph 11-13, 11-7, 13-11 in an action packed clash to seal the tie for his team and take an unassailable 4-1 lead.

The poor performance from Hyderabad continued in their 'Trump Match' as well, as veteran Malaysian doubles pair of Boon Heong Tan and Wan Kiong Tan lost to V. Shem Goh and Markis Kido 11-7, 8-11, 11-13. The match saw Hunters draw a negative, enabling Awadhe to record a 5-0 triumph.