PBL: Bengaluru appear to hold the guns against Mumbai Rockets

Kidambi Srikanths excellent form can be considered a huge gain for India from the initial skirmishes in the Premier Badminton League PBL when viewed in the wider perspective of qualification for the 2016 Olympic GamesKidambi SrikanthAlthough the results achieved during the fortnight of the PBL will not be counted in the race to make the cut for the Rio Olympics one cannot discount the psychological boost that Srikanth would have gained with fabulous victory over the former world no1 Lee Chong Wei during the keenly contested HyderabadBengaluru encounter on SundayIt was the first win for the 21 year old Indian youngster in five meetings with the redoubtable Malaysian considered one of the two best players of the last decade And it was achieved with sustained aggression and fine strategy catching the speedy Lee repeatedly along the forehand sideline with powerful jump smashesrikanths return to top gear following a year plagued by injury and loss of form will play a big part in Bengaluru Topguns plans to topple Mumbai Rockets in the second of the two ties to be played in Lucknow on Tuesday The current world no9 has enough weapons in his arsenal to take care of either H S Prannoy or R M V Gurusaidutt who would be pitted against himAlthough Srikanths teammate Sameer Varma could not get the better of Hyderabads Parupalli Kashyap his 1415 1315 loss was close enough to give his team the confidence that he could take on either Prannoy or Gurusaidutt and stand a better than even chance of scoring a point for his teamChinas Suo Di who is the sole womens singles player in the Bengaluru team appeared to be a good allround player in her match against Thai teenager Supanida Katethong and should fancy her chances against either her compatriot Han Li or Indian junior Ruthvika Shivani who takes ninth spot in the BWF girls rankingsBengaluru coach Arvind Bhat would have been delighted with the mixed doubles form of Ashwini Ponnappa who has traditionally been uncomfortable at the net but played really well to eclipse her regular womens doubles partner Jwala Gutta when they clashed against each other in the HyderabadBengaluru tie in Mumbai Ashwinis combination with Denmarks Joachim Fischer Nielsen looked welloiled and not reflective of two players pairing up for the first timeIn the Chennai Smashers ndash Delhi Acers tie which takes place earlier in the day in Lucknow P V Sindhu should be oddson favourite to deliver the womens singles point for Chennai against her Gopichand Academy mate P C ThulasiHowever any two among the mens singles trio of Frenchman Brice Leverdez and Indonesians Simon Santoso and Sony Dwi Kuncoro would have their hands full against Delhis Indonesian import Tommy Sugiarto Ajay Jayaram and Englishman Rajiv Ouseph It promises to be a tight clash as have been most of the matches in the PBL thus far