Sport
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Volleyball
Tamil Nadu crushes Haryana
By M.C. Raman
Shijas Mohammed (7) of Services smashes past Punjab's Suraj Prakash (4) and Rattan Lal's (10) block in the Federation Cup volleyball tournament on Monday. - Photo: K. Gajendran
PAYYANUR, FEB. 4. Haryana's collapse was stunning and the shaky Tamil Nadu cashed in on the rival's poor patch to notch up its second win at 25-14, 25-18, 25-19 in Group B of the 24th Federation Cup volleyball tournament at the Govt. Boys School ground here on Monday.
Haryana did not even play half of the game it played in the Raipur National championship. In fact, Tamil Nadu's attack had never been seriously challenged by the rival blockers. Amir Singh, a steady spiker and a pro, gave up after he ran into a wall like defence.
Manoharan, Rajesh, Natarajan, Sayeekrishnan and Harun Khan did not allow the Haryana spikers to have a free run. Every attack was blocked, though there was some slackness at times, like in the third set in which Tamil Nadu took a 7-2 lead and then tied at nine before winning the match comfortably.
Haryana's problem was lack of practice and its setter Darshan Singh is just ordinary. He has no variety to beat the rival defence. He rarely served arc pass, which is the main weapon at this level of competition. As Haryana spikers played high block it became easy for the rivals to stop them.
It was setter Thulasi Reddy's short balls that prompted Manoharan, Rajesh and Natarajan spike sharply. It was a crushing blow for Haryana, which showed a lot of promise at Raipur.
Railway officials protest
Late on Sunday night in the Railway v Uttaranchal men's match ran into a rough weather because of a protest by the Railway officials. There were some heated exchanges between the coaches of the Railways and Uttaranchal teams over the participation of Mithlesh Kumar for the newly formed State.
The Railways has genuine reason for lodging a protest as Mithlesh Kumar played for the title winning Railways squad in the Raipur National. The player has now resigned and joined a company in Uttaranchal. But the Railways officials say they have not received his resignation letter and the player has no relieving order. Even otherwise no player can take part in major tournaments for one year if they join a new institution. The law is clear.
This is not the first time that rules are being violated. Actually the qualified teams for the Cup competition must change only three players from the team that participates in the National championship. And their names must be in the 15 that is being given to the Federation during the National championship. But here some teams have come without the identity photo card of their players.
In fact, Uttaranchal got a break because of the non- participation of Uttar Pradesh. But the team has come here without understanding the rules of players' participation.
However, their contest was quite interesting. Railways played without its main spikers Ravikanth Reddy and Kapil Dev. Ravikanth is expected to join and Kapil is down with chicken fox. Still the team did well as setter Abubecker kept the spikers going despite Uttaranchal's strong block. The National champion won the match at 25-18, 25-12, 22-25, 26-24 in 80 minutes in Group A.
In fact, Uttaranchal enjoyed tremendous height advantage. Subba Rao, Abhijit Bhattacharya, Rithish and Rahul gave it an edge in net block. But the team's defence did not come up expectations barring for a brief period in the third set. The Railways set the tempo with quick finish. Sunil kumar, Kaptan Singh and Bairavan angled their shots well and even its overall defence was much better than Uttaranchal.
Punjab downs Services
Down in the dumps, Punjab, without its main and steady spiker, came back to turn the tables on the Services at 22-25, 19-25, 25-20, 25-21, 15-11 in men's Group B. It was the second tie-breaker that the Army team lost in two days and the reason was not far to see. If Shijas Mohammed could lift the Services's game to dizzy heights he could also spoil his team's chances.
Punjab came here with its centre Roy Joseph, who did not participate in the National championship, and that gave an edge to the former champion. But without Jagbir the team was struggling in attack and the Services net defence was pretty strong.
Shijas, Premjith, Sunil Kumar, Aman and Shankar Rao did so well in double block that Punjab was thoroughly outplayed in the first set. But the Army team's game became casual in the third set and Punjab began to find its rhythm. Manoj Kumar, Narender Singh and Gurvinder Singh angled their shots well and Services, which was leading 6-2, 17-13 in the fourth set lost it because of Punjab's steady block.
Pritipal Singh and Roy Joseph made it pretty difficult for the Armymen, who threw away points through erratic spiking, particularly by Shijas.
Kerala women stretched
Late on Sunday, Kerala, the National runner-up, had to sweat it out against Tamil Nadu in the opening women's match before winning 25-23, 21-25, 25-19, 17-25, 15-12.
In spite of having included the tall Sujatha for block in its ranks, Kerala struggled right through because of Tamil Nadu's better net defence. Gayathri, Uma, setter Nadhiya and Siji John blunted the Kerala attack. In the decider Tamil Nadu was leading 9-7, but Sujatha's block and Gish Thomas' spiking enabled the National runner-up clinch the tie. The third side in Group B is Bengal.
It looks like Chandigarh has withdrawn from the tournament. The team has not arrived here so far. So in Group A there will be only two teams, Railways and Karnataka.
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