Saturday, Apr 12, 2003
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Volleyball
By M.C. Raman
It was evident from the beginning the groupings were lopsided as most of the tough teams were clubbed in Group B. Today it was proved by the way Iran, DPR Korea and China shut out the Group A teams comfortably. Only India managed to knock out Australia 25-19, 25-23, 18-25, 25-21 and move into the semi-finals. Earlier, China crushed Thailand at 25-15, 25-22, 25-22, DPR Korea got the better of Qatar 25-19, 25-20, 25-22 and Iran outplayed Chinese-Taipei at 25-18, 25-18, 25-14. On Saturday, Iran takes on China again and India meets DPR Korea. In the last championship at Esfahan (Iran) in 2001, Iran, Korea, Chinese Taipei and DPR Korea took the first four slots in that order. This time Korea finished ninth and went out without even qualifying for the second phase. So there is a dramatic change in the power equation. No wonder than the Iran coach said confidently after the quarter-final match it would be a 3-0 shut out for China tomorrow. India is going to be toughest team to beat, according to him. It was a big challenge to face the one-man army of Australia. The towering Christensen Za can wreck any team. Incidentally, he tops the list of best individual performers table. He has taken more points in attack, serve and block. India was pitted against him. But the problem with Australia is that its second line attack is weak. Moran, Grant, Joshua, Roberts and Panagopka were unpredictable. Moran was highly erratic. Today when he served steadily at a crucial stage and collected three points Australia won the set and pushed a well-tuned India into fourth set. But the Aussies had the tendency to play loose game even when they were ahead by four points. Like in the second set. India was trailing 17-21 and all Australia had to do was to tighten the screw. But it threw away points through bad serve and erratic spiking. And India played brilliantly by blocking Christensen twice. That was a fantastic show and the crowd roared in jubilation. At the end of the group phase, India has emerged No. 2 in attack behind Iran, No. 1 in block, No. 9 in service, No. 2 in dig behind Iran, No. 1 in setting and again No. 1 in receiving. Statistically, it has been a commendable job, but that does mean an easy passage as Australia showed today. India plays a tight game However, the homeboys played a rather tight game. Only for a brief spell they lost their concentration, but the team bounced back superbly in the fourth set taking a 6-1 lead. That showed the mental toughness of the boys. Setter Kamaraj, a player from Tamil Nadu but is playing for ONGC and Uttaranchal, did a great job even when the team had bad first passes and under pressure. He moved quickly to his setting position and prompted the spiker to do the job. Sanjay Kumar, first Indian to be ranked No. 6 in the individual show, was taken out for a brief period and left arm spiker Mukesh Kumar, a junior International, was used. But Sanjay came back again to spike well. But Srikanth was highly consistent. Whether it was service or attack he was right on the spot and shored up the Indian game. Vikash Tomar hit the away ball brilliantly in the first two sets. Dinesh was a bit shaky now and then. But Rathish hit the short ball with devastating effect. India was cautious in the beginning, but played smoothly to take a 16-12 lead to press home the advantage. In the second set it trailed 21-17, but still fought and made it. But in the third set at 16-17 India made a serious mistakes and Moran's dipping serve forced the home team to lose it. However India came back in the fourth with a 17-13 lead to wrap up the match. Start-to-finish show by Iran It was a start to finish domination by Iran against Taipei. Mohammed Soleymani once again emerged best scorer of the match by taking 25 points out of 31 attempts. Salehi and Sadeghiyani added punch to Iran's attack. Sadeghiyani was in particular brilliant in jump serve. His serves rattled Taipei, which struggled to coordinate its attack. More than that it was Iran's block that worked well today. Ranjbar, Sadeghiyani and Soleymani formed strong double block to blunt the rival attackers. Lin Nai was the top scorer with 11 points from 27 attempts. But Taiepi's block was nothing and service was also poor. Po Shih tried to prop up its game, but Iran moved at faster clip smoothly. Iran took a 20-15 lead in the first set, 20-15 again in the second and 20-10 in the third. Overall Iran was too fast and strong for Taipei. DPR Korea keeps pace There was a big problem for DPR Korea when its main player Pak Yong Nam had injured his ankle and was carried out of the court in the third set. That affected the morale of the team than Qatar's game. The Koreans' block was effective at the crucial stages. Qatar's attack was good. Aziz, Hassan and Ali helped the team to keep pace with the Koreans. But in block and backcourt defence the Gulf team was found wanting. This was where the Koreans scored. Kwon Sok Chol, Pak Yong Nam and Pak Myong Il combined well in double block to put their team ahead. Ho Kwang played a great game both in attack and serve. He propped up the Korean game more than any one else. The Korean team led 20-16 in the first set, 20-17 in the second and 20-17 in the third. It was too smart and too organised team for Qatar. China gains rhythm China had gained more rhythm now than it had in the first match of the competition. Thailand ran it close in the second and third sets. But Wanchai's wayward spiking led to Thailand's downfall. Thailand's main spiker Wanchai could score only 14 points out of 31 attemps and the team's second line attack was bad. Even in block Thailand scored just two points, but China collected 11. Both the Wangs, Lei and Zhen, led the Chinese attack and Zhen was the main man. But Lei, Dawei Yu and Yue Yu formed the blocking wall effectively. It was their strong block that forced Wanchai to miss the target. Lei Wang was the best all-rounder in the match lifting the team's morale with his vibrant game. Thailand also conceded more negative points through bad serve. China led 19-13 in the first set, 22-20 in the second and 23-21 in the third. Even under pressure China finished superbly and won the match quickly. Saturday's matches — For 5 to 8 places: Chinese Taipei v Thailand (10 a.m.), Australia v Qatar (12), For 1 to 4 - Iran v China (3 p.m.), India v DPR Korea (5 p.m.).
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