The Hindu : Sport / Volleyball : India makes clean sweep

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 19, 2004

Sport

Sport - Volleyball

India makes clean sweep

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, JULY 18. Uzbekistan lost its fifth and last volleyball `Test' match to India 14-25, 20-25, 20-25 at the Montfort indoor stadium, Santhome, here on Sunday.

The Indian teams, including the Junior and Youth outfits, made a clean sweep against the former Soviet state, winning all the encounters.

Uzbekistan looked like a disjointed side from the beginning. "They (Uzbekistan) played better at Bangalore. I am not fully satisfied with my team's performance. We have to tighten up the defence further," said the Indian team's chief coach G.E. Sridharan.

The visiting side did have some talented players who could have put the Indians on the mat. But the team did not really put its heart into the match. Sharipov Mahmud's left arm jump serve was breathtaking at times and his spiking was strong.

Serebrenniko led the attack and his attack coordination was poor today, hitting the dipping ball into the net most of the time.

Gaifutdinov was erratic and Shendrikov was good in patches. But the bad thing about Uzbekistan's game was that its first pass was wayward. In fact, there was not much jump serve from Indian side.

However, the home team did well in first pass and served steadily. Subba Rao, Tom Joseph, Dinesh Kumar and setter Kapil Dev combined quickly in double block and India raced to lead. Then setter Kamaraj, Srikant, Pradeep and Jitender Kumar led India to a comfortable victory.

B. Sivanthi Adityan, President, Volleyball Federation of India, honoured the players with mementoes and also granted Rs. 3 lakhs to the Indian team which won the SAF Games gold medal in Pakistan as cash award.

FIVB delegate Mr. Jian Hui Sun, who has come here to study the stadium facilities for the World junior men's championship in 2005, was also present.

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