The Hindu : Sport : India on the threshold of glory

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Saturday, Aug 04, 2007
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Sport

India on the threshold of glory

S. Sabanayakan

Australia’s brilliance does Pakistan in

— Photo: Sushanta Patronobish

SMASHING SUCCESS: India’s Gurchand Singh (left) fires one past the South African defence in the semifinals of the Commonwealth volleyball championship on Friday.

KOLKATA: The two best teams on view, India and Australia, made sure they contest the title of the second Commonwealth volleyball championship on Saturday.

The two won their semifinal matches in contrasting styles. If Australia dominated Pakistan for 3-0 win, India’s display against South Africa was not as convincing as it should have been.

“After the tremendous victory against Australia, the Indian team was a little down and did not play to the expectations. Yet, I am happy with the showing. The team’s aim was to win…which it achieved,” said Indian coach, G.E. Sridharan. He promised that India would play all out in the final.

The South African coach Hamid Elwassimy, who coached India for eight months before the 1998 Asian Games, admitted that India was the better team.

“We tried to control the pace of the game but India’s experience took it through,” he said.

Outplayed

Getting over the disappointment of losing to India in the group league match, Australia returned to the court to outplay Pakistan in the first two games. Though they might have been surprised to see Pakistan putting up a stiff fight in the third set, the superiority of the Aussies prevailed in the end.

India opened the first set and strongly jumped into a quick lead. A quick surge by South Africa enabled it to catch up India at 12-13 before the Indians steadied their game to win the set at 25-20.

Spikers’ inability

India’s problem was its spikers’ inability to get through the blockers in which Chiya Freedom, Ntuli Thokozani and skipper Andile Masinga did well for their team.

K.J. Kapil Dev, who normally plays consistently, was not in his element. His settings were predictable and lacked imagination.

Gurchand Singh was totally off colour leaving P.S. Srikanth and Sanjay Kumar to shoulder the attack.

Central blocker Sube Singh was not always successful in thwarting the South African spiking but got winners with the low-ball attack.

South Africa established an early lead in the second set before India fought back to catch up at 11 all. A lot of unforced errors by India enabled South Africa to keep itself ahead.

Two winners

India levelled the scores nine times and when the score was 27-27, India produced two winners. Srikanth finished off a smash to take India to 28-27 and Sube Singh’s smash being touched out gave India the second set in 27 minutes.

The third set followed the same pattern as the second, with the scores going neck and neck till 9-all before India began to pull away for a comfortable lead 18-13.

The highlight of the third set was the active play of universal Sanjay Kumar.

Thereafter, India never looked back and took the set in 21 minutes.

On Saturday, Pakistan and South Africa will play for the third place match followed by the final.

The results: Semifinals: India bt South Africa 3-0 (25-20, 29-27, 25-18); Australia bt Pakistan 3-0 (25-16, 25-20, 26-24).