The Hindu : TN men in knock-out semifinals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 13, 2003

Sport

Sport - Volleyball

TN men in knock-out semifinals

By M.C. Raman

Railways' Vaisali dives to retrieve the ball during a women's match against West Bengal in the Federation Cup volleball championship at Triprayar on Wednesday. — Photo: K.Gajendran

Triprayar Feb. 12. Tamil Nadu, after a shaky start, steadied to down Karnataka 28-26, 25-22, 25-19 and move into the men's semifinal knock-out of the 25th Federation Cup volleyball tournament at the TSGA Stadium here on Wednesday.

It was `the match' for both Group A teams and the defending champion stumbled in the early part of the match because of the pace of the Karnataka attack and the way the its setter Ravindra controlled the offence.

Damodar hit the short ball superbly and the Tamil Nadu blockers could not stop him right through the match, barring one or two shots. Prakash Rao too was right on target. These were the reasons for Karnataka's 16-13 lead in the first set.

Though Pradeep John, Sayeekrishnan, Harun Khan and Natarajan combined well in double block, Karnataka kept coming back despite trailing 21-23 in the first set. Karnataka played the short ball attack really well.

Tamil Nadu hit back at set point (26-25). Natarajan angled his shot nicely, then Prakash Rao hit out and Manoharan spiked a short ball to give Tamil Nadu the vital point to win.

Karnataka made a good start in the second to take a 4-1 lead but Tamil Nadu's block improved. Natarajan spiked superbly, Sayeekrishnan hit his shots with control and libero Swaminathan gave neat first passes.

Setter Thulasi Reddy not only boosted intelligently but also surprised the rival with quick finish at the net. Thulasi scored more points like that in the third set.

Karnataka's fight faded in the third set as the defending champion took complete control. Harsha played better but Sankar was blocked completely. That dealt a big blow to Karnataka which won one match and lost two.

Earlier in the women's section, Railways beat Bengal comfortably 25-17, 25-14, 25-14 to emerge Group A winner.

In a men's Group B match that went beyond midnight on Tuesday, Kerala was almost pushed to the brink by Andhra, which fought gallantly to take a two-set lead, but the local side changed its pattern of attack at the right time and tightened its defence to record its second win at 25-27, 18-25, 25-23, 25-16, 18-16 in 95 minutes.

This was Kerala's second win and the team moved into the knock-out semifinals and Andhra bowed out of the race with two losses.

Railways in semifinals

Substitute Kaptan Singh played his heart out to steer the Railways to an exciting 34-32, 23-25, 20-25, 25-23,15-10 win over Haryana in men's Group B and moved into the semifinals with two wins on Tuesday.

It was a match that was marred by protests by Haryana players over a line call and almost walked out of the match. Then the table official made such a mess that the match was held up for brief periods during service. Mercifully, international referee Benny Coonghe of Tamil Nadu brought things under control and told the team members to keep their cool and get on with the game.

It was a tough fight from the beginning and for both the teams it was a question of survival. Haryana, which lost to Kerala badly, had determined to fight out and two players made it possible for it. Amir Singh was the main spiker. But Sanjay Kumar gave a superb display of spiking when he unleashed his shots past even triple block.

Haryana was at set point at 24-23 in the first set, but the Railways fought back through Sunil and Srikanth. Haryana had seven set points, but everytime the Railways was coming back. Then Sudhakar's block gave the former champion its first lead and the Railways won the set on Srikanth's spiking.

However, in the second set Haryana took an early lead and maintained it. Its back court defence improved tremendously and its attack became powerful as Amir Singh began to hit perfectly from the back court.

But when a line call put the Railways ahead at 20-19, the Haryana players argued with the referee and walked out. But they came back and won the set on Sanjay's spiking.

This trend continued in the third set too. The Railways coach, Karimullah, seems to be lucky with his substitutes. When he sent in Kaptan Singh he began to spike brilliantly and became unstoppable. Then Sudhakar, Srikanth and Bairavan joined the team again from the bench and the team regained its rhtyhm.

Sudhakar blocked strongly and retrieved some hard shots in the back court. That helped Railways to take the fourth set. And in the decider, a well set Railways took control in the beginning itself by blocking Amir and Sanjay. After an 8-5 lead it romped home.

The match took 106 minutes and Haryana, with two losses, bowed out of the race.

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