Badminton Badminton PBL: Chennai Superstarz pips Awadhe Warriors, books semifinal slot Chennai now has 19 points and it tops the points table followed by North-Eastern Warriors, which also virtually booked the last four slot with 18 points. V.V. Subrahmanyam Hyderabad 01 February, 2020 23:10 IST Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Jessica Pugh played a nerve-racking thriller to script an epic Chennai Superstarz win on Saturday. - PBL V.V. Subrahmanyam Hyderabad 01 February, 2020 23:10 IST Chennai Superstarz assured itself of a semifinal slot with a 4-3 win over Awadhe Warriors in the Premier Badminton League at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium on Saturday. Chennai now has 19 points and it tops the points table followed by North-Eastern Warriors, which also virtually booked the last four slot with 18 points. Earlier, the fast-improving World No. 32 Lakshya Sen ensured a perfect start for Chennai when he outplayed Subhankar Dey in a hurry, consistently attacking a weak forehand.Later in the men’s doubles, Awadhe’s combination of Ivan Sozonov and former World championship gold medallist Ko Sung-Hyun, playing their Trump match, outslugged R. Satwik Sairaj and Dhruv Kapila taking their game to a different level in the second and third games and also attacking the weaker Dhruv who was not equal to the task in the face of a series of body smashes.For Chennai, World No. 21 Tommy Sugiarto won the men’s singles, which was a Trump match for his team, notching up a fluent win over World No. 41 Wong Wing Ki Vincent to give a 3-2 lead for the team. As it happenedThen, in the women’s singles, 16-year-old Gayatri Gopichand, preferred by Chennai to Kirsty Gilmour, who is down with stomach upset, was not really outplayed by the World No. 14 Beiwen Zhang.In fact, Gayatri led 5-3 in the first game before Zhang came to terms with her game and started dominating. But, not before the former showed great composure and produced some wonderful half-smashes too. In the last mixed doubles match which turned out to be the decider, R. Satwiksairaj and Jessica Pugh pulled off a brilliant 15-11, 13-15, 15-14 win over Ko Sung Hyun and Christinna Pedersen. Satwik gave some anxious moments to his camp when he limped off the court at 10-11 in the second game, forcing medical attention to his right ankle. The results: Chennai Superstarz bt Awadhe Warriors 4-3 (Lakshya Sen bt Subhankar Dey 15-7, 15-8; Dhruv Kapila & R. Satwiksairaj lost to Ivan Sozonov & Ko Sung Hyun (T) 15-12, 11-15, 10-15; Tommy Sugiarto (T) bt Wong Wing Ki Vincent 15-10, 15-8; Gayatri Gopichand lost to Beiwen Zhang 10-15, 5-15; R. Satwikaairaj & Jessica Pugh bt Ko Sung Hyun & Christinaa Pedersen 15-11, 13-15, 15-14) Read more stories on Badminton. For more updates, follow Sportstar on :