The Hindu : Sport / Volleyball : Tamil Nadu upsets Kerala

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 21, 2005

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Sport - Volleyball

Tamil Nadu upsets Kerala

By M.C. Raman

CHENNAI, JAN. 20. Tamil Nadu did not let down the home crowd as it prevailed over last year's runner-up Kerala 25-21, 25-21, 22-25, 28-26 in Group Y of the men's section in the 53rd National Senior Volleyball Championship at the Velammal Engineering College campus, Surapet, here on Thursday.

Those who saw Kerala's awesome spiking power against Karnataka on Wednesday would not have believed that the Kerala of Thursday is the same team as that of the previous day. Tamil Nadu once again proved that if there is will there is a way. Despite its team composition — a bunch of new players along with the ageing setter Sundaram — the home team showed tremendous spirit that steered it through the match.

But, they were helped by the failure of Tom Joseph from the beginning and Kerala's inability to come back under pressure. It was not just Tom's spiking and blocking. Kerala's block failed miserably as a whole and Rajiv hardly did anything as blocker and spiker. It was just the second line attack of Sunil Kumar and Jobish that kept Kerala going. But there was too much confusion as setter Anil found the spikers at the wrong place for attack.

Tamil Nadu struck rhythm quickly as its first pass was superb. Natarajan was in full flow and his spiking record was 23 points from 45 spikes. Karthikeyan played more sensibly in the fourth set and he went for touch outs, avoiding the block brilliantly. The host raced to a 21-16 lead in the first set and maintained a four-point lead in the second and raised before Kerala a `catch me if you can' situation.

There was a minor shuffle in Kerala's squad in the third set as the tall Vinod was brought in for net

defence. Sivabalan's slip and its shaky defence saw Tamil Nadu concede a 14-19 lead to Kerala. Still Tamil Nadu saved three set points, but lost the third set through net touch.

It was easy going for the local team in the fourth set as it was ahead 11-7 and there was a tie at 20-20. But Sivabalan found his touch at this stage and Karthikeyan jump served and spiked well.

Raliways scores win

Earlier, Karnataka started well against the Railways, but the Railways did well in block at the crucial stages to get the better of Karnataka 25-20, 15-25, 25-22, 25-22 in Group Y. A three-way tie is possible in this group for both the first and second positions. If Railways beats Kerala tomorrow it will be through and the tie will be for the second position.

Railways and Tamil Nadu moved into the women's semi-finals with two victories each in Group X. Both scored straight set victories today.

A three-way tie is possible in this Group. If Kerala wins against Bengal tomorrow it will emerge winner of the group.

The results:

Men: Group Y: Tamil Nadu bt Kerala 25-21, 25-21, 22-25, 28-26; Railways bt Karnataka 20-25, 25-15, 25-22, 25-22. Group X: Andhra Pradesh bt Uttar Pradesh 26-24, 25-20, 20-25, 25-18.

Women: Group X: Railways bt Karnataka 25-22, 26-24, 25-9; Tamil Nadu bt Chandigarh 25-22, 25-20, 25-17; Group Y: Kerala bt Andhra 25-21, 25-13, 19-25, 26-28, 18-16; Bengal bt UP 25-15, 25-18, 26-24.

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