The Hindu : Railways gets the better of AP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 02, 2003

Sport

Sport - Volleyball

Railways gets the better of AP

By Avinash Nair

Haryana's Suber Singh and Amir Singh try to block Uttar Pradesh's Anand Sharma in the senior National volleyball championship at Davangere on Monday. — Photo: Sampath Kumar

DAVANGERE Dec. 1. Indian Railways blunted the fire-power of Andhra Pradesh with clinical efficiency to notch up a 28-26, 22-25, 25-19, 25-18 win in a group G league encounter of the Second phase of the senior National volleyball championship at the District stadium here today.

Led by Ravikant Reddy, an Arjuna awardee this year, Railways did take time to find its bearings, but once it did there was no stopping it, barring a slight pullback in the second set.

Andhra Pradesh's Ajay Kumar Reddy, who until this day was flawless, found wanting as did an erratic Ravinder Reddy. But to some extent the left-handed Kiran Kumar Reddy and setter Kasiviswanadha Raju, did come up trumps winning crucial points. But against a team like Railways, which needs no second invitation, AP came up only second best.

Having come through the first phase with a clean slate and in downing last year's third placed finishers Punjab, in thee sets last night, there was a lot of expectations from Andhra Pradesh men.

Today however it was a far from impressive Andhra side while Railways chugged along nicely.

Before Railways could settle down AP ran away to a 5-0 lead. But once the first passes did come good for Railways international Ravikant Reddy set up the ball for the lanky G. Pradeep and P.S. Srikanth to end the rallies with telling smashes.

In the second set, there was a few hiccups in Railway defence which AP was quick to exploit. Kirankumar Reddy and Dhananjayarao came up with good smashes and Railways had no answer though it did recover from being 18-21 to level scores at 21-all. But that was as far as it could go for AP closed out the set at 25-22.

In the third set with Kapil Dev and Ravikant combining well Railways went ahead and maintained it till the very end.

With the match slipping away from his grasp V. Srikanth Reddy, the AP coach did shuffle his players around and even rested Ajaykumar Reddy for sometime, but there was no palpable improvement in the team's play as Railways came up with some big smashes that enabled it to win at a trot at 25-18.

Haryana sent qualifier Uttar Pradesh packing early. Having lost to Tamil Nadu yesterday, U.P.'s interest in the championship was at a low ebb. And having succeeded in getting the schedule revised U.P. lost in straight sets and promptly went home early. Mukesh Kumar and Anand Sharma failed to get past the Haryana wall in the form of three man block time and again and Haryana took just 42 minutes to eke out a 25-15, 25-14, 25-10 win.

Chandigarh women post win

Chandigarh women despite missing two stalwarts, Poonam and Mukta, proved far too good for U.P. and won 25-14, 25-18, 26-24.

The tall Minni Bharadwaj and Rachna Dhauta looked impressive both in attack and repeatedly blocked the Stuti Pandey led U.P. charges.

Haryana women look the dark horses. Having silenced the home team supporters with a hard fought five-set win late last night, Haryana did flatter to run up a handy lead against Andhra Pradesh too. However the early advantage was let off as AP women thanks to Ashalatha and Y. Smitha inched back into the match steadily.

Tamil Nadu women began its campaign on a winning note beating Madhya Pradesh 25-19, 25-9, 25-10. Selvakumari was a pillar of strength but it was Rejani and Binu Thomas who led the charge with some aggressive display at he net that silenced the MP challenge.

MP's Shweta Charag and Anuradha Dubey did manage to split through the TN block with regularity but got little support from the team-mates.

The results:

Men:

Group G: Railways bt Andhra Pradesh 28-26, 22-25, 25-19, 25-18; Group H: Haryana bt Uttar Pradesh 25-15, 25-14, 25-10.

Women:

Group E: Chandigarh bt Uttar Pradesh 25-14, 25-18, 26-24; Group H: TN bt Madhya Pradesh 25-19, 25-9, 25-10.

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