Tuesday, Aug 20, 2002
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Volleyball
By M.C. Raman
But that was the only plus point of the visitors, as the Indian team, blocking and serving strongly, wrapped up their second match in the fifth Sivanthi Gold international volleyball tournament, at the Kotla Vijay Bhaskar Reddy indoor stadium here, with a 25-20, 25- 9, 25-18 victory on Monday. Handicapped by the height disparity, Myanmar's only option was playing fast to unsettle its rival. The team did that and Aung gave it a good start. With seven seniors and three juniors, Myanmar tried to unsettle the local team with fast attacks and quick finishes at the net. Aung led the assault with excellent control and sometimes he packed so much power, that the shots bent the palms of Rajesh and Subba Rao and went past them. Later during the post-match briefing, the Indian coach Shyamsundar Rao said the boy's spiking was akin to Pappan's in his younger days. Right through the match Aung was the one spiker who bothered the Indian blockers. There was so much shoulder power behind the shots that Rajesh and Subba Roa missed most of them. However, the Indian team did extremely well in shutting out the others — Kyaw Swar Win, Tin Win Aung, Nay Lin Tun and Win Miun Tun. Setter Ye Myint, a senior player, found the going tough when Tom Joseph disturbed their first pass with a superb jump serve that looked more powerful than his shots, particularly in the second set, and setter Ravikanth Reddy found his touch in service. In the first set, Myanmar matched the India Seniors' attack to some extent, as Ye Min Aung got his shots right. Upto 14-13, the local team was unable to break the rhythm of the visitors, who served close to the net and dodged the block well. After that, the game swung in India's favour as Joby Joseph and Tom Joseph began to hit their shots with power. Though the Indian net defence improved, the home team was yet to strike its real rhythm and flow. There was a sea change in the approach of Indians in the second set, as they raised their game a notch. Tom's jump service shook the rival and Ravikanth Reddy shattered the rivals' first pass with aces. Unable to organise the offence, Myanmar trailed by 12 points and lost the second set badly. The Seniors pressed home the advantage in the third set to take a five point lead. Midway through the set, coach Shyamsundar made three changes with setter Kapil Dev, Sunil Kumar and Raghuveer Singh replacing Ravikanth Reddy, Subba Rao and Rajesh. But they were rather shaky and the lead came down from seven points to four points. However, Joby steadied the attack and the team shut the door on Myanmar in just 53 minutes. ``Against Myanmar's block I cannot judge my team's attack. But the boys did well both in block and service. Only in retrieving floating service was there was a little bit of slackness. We have to rectify it. Defence is okay. Libero Arun Jakmola once again did a good job,'' said the Indian coach Shyamsundar Rao.
India Juniors too good
for Kazakhs
In the second match of the day, the India Juniors team heaped further humiliation on Kazakhstan by beating it comfortably 25-15, 25-13, 25-17. This was the Juniors' first win in two matches, while the Kazakhs have lost both their matches so far. Having combined well in the recent tour, the Juniors are in fine nick. They might have been overawed by the presence of Seniors in the first match, but today the Junior side went on an attacking spree, without bothering about the height advantage of the rival. Backed by the crowd, the Juniors launched their attack straightaway, with Sivabalan leading the assault. Mukesh Kumar's left-arm spiking exposed Kazakhstan's weak net defence and he became more aggressive as the match wore on. It was only in the third set did Kazakhstan manage to stop two shots with a `strong' Russian touch. Otherwise, the Indian team was always right on top. In fact, the home team did well in defence too. Rahul, Vikram and Kishore Kumar blunted the Kazakhs, who offered 10 points in every set by hitting out. Ignor, Konstantin, Alexei and Nickolai were not steady and were not angling their shots well even when the block was not strong. Denis put more shots out than in and setter Oleg was annoyed when the referee penalised him for carrying the ball. The visitors just did not have the defence to stop the Indian Juniors. Though they took the lead (8-7) in the third set, when the substitutes came, the Juniors were always in control.
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