It was just a question of who wanted it more. With a semi-final spot within reach, the Awadhe Warriors looked a hungry lot in their match-up against the Pune Pistons at the G.M.C. Balayogi Indoor Stadium here on Sunday.
Just how much they wanted to win the tie was evident in the way the Warriors’ K. Srikanth and captain P.V. Sindhu won their respective matches to take their side into a 2-0 lead in the tie.
Srikanth, opening the proceedings against Saurabh Verma, clawed his way back from a 7-2 deficit in the first game to taking the match 21-18, 21-16 in relatively comfortable fashion.
Sindhu, in contrast, registered a determinedly scrappy 21-20, 21-20 victory over Germany’s Juliane Schenk, despite never seeming in control of the encounter.
Hyderabad lad Srikanth began the match nervously as Saurabh Verma ran off to a 5-1 lead before lending some semblance of fight to the proceedings.
Srikanth’s aggressive tactics were countered by Verma, who, as cool as a cucumber, led 7-2 at one point. This was where the match turned on its head. Srikanth, using a mixture of deft flicks, delicate lobs and aggressive smashes, pulled level at 10-10 and soon, it turned into a neck-and-neck race to the finish between the two. It was a race Srikanth won at 21-18.
Srikanth seemed a changed player in the second game. He owned the court, quite literally dictating proceedings as he galloped to a 9-1 lead.
Verma tried to break Srikanth’s momentum by sneaking in a point to make it 2-9, but Srikanth was on too much of a roll to let this speed bump affect him, much to the delight of the sparse but vociferous crowd, who threw their combined weight behind the local lad.
Verma seemed helpless against a relentless barrage of smashes. However, when things seemed to be hurtling downhill for the Pistons shuttler at 3-14, he began to claw his way back.
Srikanth still held all the aces at 16-7 when Verma unleashed a stunning fight back to win seven consecutive points and sow the seeds of doubt in Srikanth’s mind.