Gilmour’s Smash Masters currently third in PBL

Kirsty Gilmour’s Ahmedabad Smash Masters are sitting in third place in the Indian PBL, being held from 22 December – 13 January.

Gilmour is the only Scot and one of only six British players – Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith (Bengaluru Raptors) and Raj Ouseph and Chris and Gabby Adcock (Chennai Smashers) are the others – to be competing in the lucrative PBL.

She has played in all four of the Smash Masters’ matches and has already made a significant contribution to her team.

In her first match against the North Eastern Warriors she suffered a 2-0 reverse to India’s Rituparna Das but the Smash Masters nevertheless powered to a 4-1 win to get their campaign off to a great start.

Against the Delhi Dashers on Boxing Day, the women’s singles was chosen as the Smash Masters’ trump match, meaning should Gilmour win the tie she would gain double points but if she lost it would result in minus 1 point for her team.

With the overall score 2-0 to the Smash Masters, Gilmour initially went a game down to Russia’s Evgeniya Kosetskaya but fought back to win, making the score line 4-0 before the Dashers won the final tie to claim a point.

The Smash Masters were tied 3-3 with the Bengaluru Raptors when Gilmour took to the court in her crucial women’s singles, beating Thai player Thi Trang Vu to give her team a 4-3 overall victory.

But she was unable to seriously challenge Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun of the Chennai Smashers, going down 15-11 15-9 to the world No. 9 as the Smash Masters lost all five matches to end with a negative 1 score for the tie, as Ouseph upset the odds with a win over former world champion Viktor Axelsen in the Smash Masters’ chosen trump match, the men’s singles.

The next test for the Smash Masters is a clash with the Awadhe Warriors on 4 January.

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