ONGC men recovered from a mid-match slump to beat BPCL Kerala 25-17, 17-25, 25-21, 25-21 in the semifinals of the National Club Volleyball Championship at the Corporation grounds on Saturday. ONGC’s all-round display and consistency helped them overcome a stiff challenge from BPCL. ONGC’s blocking, placements and pulsating serves helped them seal a spot in the summit clash
ONGC’s Subba Rao’s blocking, Ranjith Singh’s boosting and Lalit Kumar’s smashes were too hot to handle for the Kerala side. Ranjit combined with Navjit and virtually formed a wall much to the discomfiture of BPCL.
ONGC began with a bang winning the first set 25-17. In the second set, BPCL served, smashed and blocked better than the first set. Kishore and Rajeev combined well for BPCL and played a big role in BPCL levelling the scores at 1-1. On the other hand, ONGC was caught napping by the aggressive BPCL spikers. Plus they failed to combine well.
However, ONGC won the next two sets on the strength of their serves and blocking to end BPCL’s hopes.
Results: Women: St Joseph’s College of Engineering, Chennai bt Mayor’s Club, Hyderabad 26-24, 27-25, 17-25, 25-14.
Men: Semis: ONGC bt BPCL, Kochi 25-17, 17-25, 25-21, 25-21.
Gautam to meet Siddharth in final
Gautam Venkatramani of India Pistons beat Punit Shah of Ernest & Young 3-0 in the semifinals of the CSK Super Cup multi-sport snooker event at the TNCA Club here on Saturday.
Results: Snooker: Semis: Siddharth Rao (India Pistons) bt Karthikeyan K (Jones Lang) 3-0; Gautam Venkatramani (India Pistons) bt Punit Shah (Ernest & Young) 3-0; Quarterfinals: Punit Shah (Ernest & Young) bt Rajesh Bothra (RBS) 2-0; S Rao (India Pistons) bt S Senthil (HDFC) 2-0; Karthikeyan K (Jones Lang) bt Mahesh Ramanathan (RBS) 2-0; Gautam Venkatramani (India Pistons) bt M Baskaran (HP) 2-0; Cricket: Brief score: Semifinal: Cognizant 112 in 19 overs (E Sivakumar 3-16) lost to VGN 113 for 6 in 19 overs (S Surendar 48, M Sridhar 35 no). MoM: S Surendar.