Chennai, March 15 – Ahmedabad Defenders earned a hard-fought victory over the Delhi Toofans in the Super 5s stage of the third season of Prime Volleyball League, winning the match 15-10, 11-15, 10-15, 18-16 win at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, Chennai on Friday to stay alive in the competition.
Angamuthu, who was named the Player of the Match later, began well in attacks, helped on by Muthusamy’s clever passing. There were consecutive net touches from Delhi and Ahmedabad made the most of them. Max Senica’s indecisiveness on attack allowed Delhi to gain an easy point while Santhosh’s consistent attacks further helped. But it was Shikhar Singh who ensured the Defenders maintained their lead with consecutive monstrous blocks.
Dodic started finding spaces between Ahmedabad blockers to create chances for Delhi. An untimely injury to Nandhagopal depleted firepower from the Ahmedabad attack and Aponza started making blocks to bring Delhi back into the contest. Santhosh’s attacks from the middle kept testing the Defenders, and the momentum began to shift.
Angamuthu kept getting good height on his attacks to earn crucial points, but Dodic’s aggressive serves left the Ahmedabad defence vulnerable, and Delhi took a 2-1 lead. Shon T. started attacking well to launch Ahmedabad’s fightback. Despite Senica’s agonising errors, Ahmedabad maintained composure to push the match to the fifth set, riding on Angamuthu’s attacks.
A couple of missed blocks from Aponza motivated Ahmedabad to launch pipe attacks. Muthusamy began involving his middle blockers in attacks to add force behind their attacks. Angamuthu continued to hit spikes from the outside lines to test Delhi, helping his side get a crucial super point and scripting an important win for his side.
bsk/
