Tamil Nadu and Services enter last four

By M.C. Raman

KOZHIKODE, JAN. 12 Two front runners faced elimination and one managed to save its face with a nerve-wracking victory in the extra points of the tie- breaker. Such was the intensity of the competition. While Tamil Nadu, the former champion, pushed to the brink, managed to ward off the threat with a 25-20, 20-25, 15-25, 25-16, 17-15 victory and moved into the men's semi-final of the 49th National senior volleyball championship at the Exhibition ground here on Friday. Railways went down to Services at 25-22, 23-25, 18-25, 23-25 in 72 minutes to crash out of the competition.

Undoubtedly it was a day of twists and turns that were caused by two lowly teams, Uttar Pradesh and Services. Their performances in the pool games were not so impressive, except that U.P. stretched almost every team, including Kerala. And this morning it had to play against qualifier from Group D, Himachal Pradesh, in a play-off match. In that match U.P. beat HP 25-23, 28-26, 25- 12. Having done that U.P. came back in a remarkable fashion to give the biggest scare to Tamil Nadu, which had a fairly comfortable time in the group matches.

It was overconfidence and lack of sense in assessing the strength of the rival that almost eliminated Tamil Nadu from the race. The biggest problem with Tamil Nadu was that it was not using second line attack more to dodge the rival block. Depending too much on Sayeekrishnan was the cause for all its slog for the victory. Setter Thulasi Reddy began well, but it was his stereotype setting that nearly wrecked the team.

From 20-18 Tamil Nadu quickly stretched its lead with Natarajan and Thulasi spiking well. With a block it won the first set. It looked as if the former champion would run through. But U.P. played brilliantly in the second set. Subba Rao, Abhijit Bhattacharya, Avinash Yadav and Bahaduria not only blocked well, but also blunted Sayeekrishnan's attack. In fact, U.P. was playing like Tamil Nadu, placing, retrieving and finishing at the net superbly. Ashwini Bhaduria was angling his shots well. Even Abhijit and Avinash mixed placements with shots nicely to give three point lead midway through the second set. Tamil Nadu was seen at its worst in the third set, trailing by seven points. It was U.P.'s deadblock and intelligent spiking brought tremendous pressure on Tamil Nadu, which, however, played like a novice. U.P. outwitted Tamil Nadu at the net, finishing quickly and sharply.

Without strong defence in the back court Tamil Nadu was down by two sets to one. Even in the fourth it trailed 12-13 and the strong cross wind was affecting its game. But U.P. was in a better shape to fight, but with some better block through Manoharan, Sayeekrishnan and Kumaran, it managed to make it 2- all. But in the decider Tamil Nadu again muffed close chances at the net and trailed 11-13 and there was a confusion in the score that threatened to drag in the crowd.

There was a brief hold up. It was ironical that Sayeekrishnan, whose erratic spiking affected Tamil Nadu's game, managed to spike perfectly at the crucial moment to save the team. And Bahaduria, who lifted U.P.'s game with his strong spiking, hit out the last ball that cut short U.P.s' challenge.

What a way to lose

There was no denying the fact that the Railways' game was shoddy and Services quickly exploited it to enter the semi-finals. The Army team, despite being under pressure, played more intelligently. Even when its first pass was bad setter Sabu Francis played with tremendous guts, prompting the attack with quick setting. Aman, an international, angled his shot well. Shijas, who was erratic in the beginning, began to spike with control and Sheejith and Sunil Kumar combined well in attack and defence. It was a great rally and the Railways collapsed.

In another play off match, Karnataka beat Chandigarh 25-19, 25- 18, 24-26, 25-20 in the morning.

Karnataka women entered the semifinals, beating Bengal 25-9, 25- 23, 25-21. Surprisingly, there was no block from Bengal and Supriya, a good away ball hitter, propped up the Karnataka attack. Karnataka led from beginning to end.

In two women's quarterfinals, host Kerala beat Delhi 25-13, 25-12 and 25-19 and Andhra also won in straight sets against Chandigarh at 25-19, 25-21, 25-16. Andhra will meet Karnataka in the semifinals.

Earlier on Thursday night, Kerala pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the championship when it downed the defending champion Punjab 25-22, 21-25, 25-23, 21-25, 15-6 to top Group A. It was more Kerala's spirit than its approach that tilted the match in favour of the home team amid vociferous support of the crowd. Punjab's block was also not steady and the team struggled to stretch the rival.

Bengal also surprirsed Karnataka in a Group A match at 25-21, 21- 25, 15-25, 25-23, 15-10 and forced a three-way tie for the fourth position behind Kerala, Punjab and Services. In Group B, Tamil Nadu, Railways, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan finished in that order. Rajasthan has been demoted.

In the last women's Group A match Railways beat Bengal 25-16, 25- 21, 25-15.

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