The Hindu : Sport / Volleyball : Kerala survives a scare against TN

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 24, 2007
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Sport

Sport - Volleyball

Kerala survives a scare against TN

Kirti Patil

JAIPUR: Kerala avoided a blush on the back of spirited showing by Vibin M. George and E.K. Kishore Kumar as they rallied to beat Tamil Nadu in four sets in a Group B league match in the 56th National volleyball championship here on Sunday.Vibin and Kishore inspired the last year’s runners-up Kerala, after Tamil Nadu started in great form taking the first set and then assuming a handy lead in the second. But Vibin and international Tom Joseph in patches provided some succour to Kerala before it made the rally and won 17-25, 25-17, 29-27, 25-21 in an hour and 20 minutes.

Kalaivanan and Nadarajan provided Tamil Nadu a good start. Sivabalan’s drops took Kerala by surprise but Tamil Nadu failed to carry on when under pressure.

Tables turned

Kerala turned the tables midway through the second set when Vibin and Kishore combined to give them a chance to come back. P.M. Vijesh shown in between while libero Kiran Philip was exceptional under the circumstances.Tamil Nadu, missed an active libero as Kukan proved less worthy and coach G.E. Sridharan, who is also the National coach, kept on regulating him.Earlier, Rajasthan men gave some reason for the organisers to rejoice as they won their opening Group D league match against Assam. Rajasthan won 25-17, 25-20, 25-17 in 57 minutes after an undue delay in the opening ceremony pushed the matches well into late evening.

In a group also comprising Delhi and Himachal Pradesh, it will take some effort from Rajasthan to make it to the top and then play the qualifiers for the quarterfinals.

The defending women’s champion Railways hardly broke any sweat in beating Delhi in straight sets 25-14, 25-12, 25-15. K.J. Shibi, A.J. Sheeja, K.T. Betsy and libero Priya Mol set up the game for Railways and they smashed winners to open huge leads before settling the issue. Delhi struggled under the relentless onslaught from Railways before losing.