The Hindu : India's fantastic show continues

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 12, 2003

Sport

Sport - Volleyball

India's fantastic show continues

By M.C. Raman

Suphanburi July 11. It wasn't a samba for Brazil as the Russians made the defending champion dance to its tune and pushed the South Americans to the brink at 11-13 in the decider.

But the champions rallied superbly to shunt out Russia at 25-22, 17-15, 25-19, 20-25, 17-15 in the quarterfinals of the eighth World Youth (boys) volleyball championship at the Silpha-archa stadium here on Friday.

Later, India easily wrapped up its match against Puerto Rico at 25-17, 25-14, 25-11. The Asian champion was never under pressure as the North Americans caved in.

It was another amazing day in this championship. Three teams from the same pool (C) as India have made it to the semifinals. Brazil put up an incredible fight to eliminate Russia, the Czech Republic brushed aside Australia and India knocked out Puerto Rico.

Looking back it was a fantastic show by the Indian boys, emerging winners, as they did, from the toughest pool in the competition. It would give them some measure of comfort that they may have to meet `known devil' Brazil rather than the unknown Russia in the final confrontation, that is if India goes past last year's runner-up Iran in the semifinal.

It has turned out to be a bad competition for European teams. Only the Czechs have survived. What went wrong for them? Everything. The two Asian teams, India and Iran, have moulded excellent outfits with superior technique.

Cutting down on errors and improving attack and block they have come this far. As the Puerto Rico head coach Arroyo Carlos said at the post match press briefing, "the Indian players played like mature players. Compared to them my boys played like novices. There was absolutely no chance to do anything."

India led from start to finish. Puerto Rico did not have the block to challenge the Indian spikers, mainly Srikanth and Sanjay Kumar. Today, Dinesh Kumar and Rathish hit the short ball well to give India an edge right through. They were outstanding in defence as well, helping India maintain a healthy lead in every set.

India played a tight game, there were no loose passes, bad serves or erratic hitting. Everything was under control. There was a bit of waywardness in the first pass, but setter Kamaraj did his job efficiently.

Libero Kulwant, substitute Pradeep and Vikas Tomar, who served well in the third set, lent good support to steer India into the semifinals.

A great fightback

Brazil's was a great fight back. Whenever the Russian block was good Brazil struggled. But the defending champion did not give up hope and rallied at every stage with better attack and block.

Two players played their hearts out for Brazil. Thiago was the main spiker and he was hitting the long ball superbly despite Russia's awesome block. Danilo served and blocked well at the right time, particularly in the final set when Brazil was down 11-13.

Later at the press briefing, the Brazilian captain, Thiago, said his team was focussed on making it 13-all and the team did it despite being under tremendous pressure.

Kruglo Pavel and Danilov Roman were Russia's main spikers, but they lacked consistency and hit out at crucial stages. It was the block of the towering Volkov and Ostapenko that helped Russia win back two sets. But in the decider the team caved in despite being well positioned with some good spiking by Danilov and Pavel.

Aussie strategy fails to work

Earlier, the Czech Republic beat Australia 20-25, 25-16, 25-18, 25-19 in the quarterfinals.

Australia had spent about six hours on Thursday analysing the rival's game and drawing up a plan to counter the Europeans' strategy. But their strategy obviously came to naught.

The Aussies made a fairly good start, combining smoothly and its ace spiker, Zane Christensen, was right on target when the Czechs' blocks were ineffective initially.

However, the Eastern European team rallied strongly thereafter putting up a better attack through Hrazdira Michal, Moucha and Vesely, a towering boy with strong shoulders.

More than the game the Czechs showed tremendous fighting spirit. Ever since they lost to India in a group clash, they have reorganised their game so effectively and mowed down all opposition to reach the semifinals.

After the match the Czech coach Juda Petr admitted that his team had been nervous in the beginning, but picked up well later.

The Aussie coach, Russell Borgeaud, said his team did not have the block to stop the rival and had also served badly.

The problem with Australia was that it did not have a second line attack to prop up its game. Only Christensen spiked effectively, scoring 22 points out of 48 attempts. Moran and Grant fared badly.

Australia offered more error points than the Czech. There were too many loose attacks and returns against the Czechs who were sharp and quick at the net.

Iran in last four

Iran braved the 3000 odd home supporters' noisy cheer to get the better of Thailand 25-16, 25-22, 25-19 and make the semifinals.

The Iranians did not leave anything to chance and played a tight game from the beginning. Soleymani was in fine nick and the home team did not have the block to stop him.

Iran has depth in attack. Sadeghi and left-hander Salehi lent good support to Soleymani. The Thai blockers were confused most of the time and Iran always stayed ahead in the first set maintaining a four-point lead.

Thailand's Teeradate, a short boy with an excellent jump, spiked well in the first set. However, the other spiker, Wanchai, was not steady.

Having gained in confidence through its first set win, Iran surged ahead in the second set too with a five- point lead. The Thais, who failed to organise an effective system to block, were seen struggling as Soleymani unleashed his crosscourt shots superbly. Barring a few flashes of brilliance from Wanchai, Kuttikun and Teeradate, the Thai attack did not much of an impact.

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