Pune, Jul 29 (IANS): Defending champions Chennai Lions will take on Puneri Paltan Table Tennis in the second semi-final of the ongoing Ultimate Table Tennis Season 4 at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Mahalunge-Balewadi, here on Saturday.

Chennai Lions lost their last tie against Dabang Delhi T.T.C and will look to bounce back to reach the final of season 4. Achanta Sharath Kamal will be the key player for the franchise despite losing his last match to Sathiyan Gnanasekaran.

World No. 33 Benedikt Duda and Yangzi Liu will look to continue their winning performance in the last four stage.

"The last tie was a close one. We will give our best in the upcoming tie against Puneri Paltan Table Tennis. Our squad has a lot of quality. We are the defending champions and it gives us a lot of confidence when we play against any opponent in Season 4," said Duda ahead of the next tie.

On the other hand, Puneri Paltan Table Tennis will bank on their young paddlers Manush Shah, who upset World No. 17 Quadri Aruna in the last league tie, and Archana Kamath apart from their international star World No. 21 Omar Assar who is also the former All-Africa Games champion.

"We have been in great form and performed well in the last tie as well which was a close one against U Mumba TT. Omar has been in great form and gives us a solid start. Chennai Lions are really competitve in this league and our focus is to win the next tie," said Manush.

Squads:

Chennai Lions -- Coaches: Somnath Ghosh, Jorg Bitzigeio; Players: Achanta Sharath Kamal, Yangzi Liu, Benedikt Duda, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Payas Jain and Prapti Sen

Puneri Paltan Table Tennis -- Coaches: N Ravichandran, Zoltan Batorfi; Players: Omar Assar, Manush Shah, Archana Kamath, Snehit SFR, Anusha Kutumbale and Hana Matelova