ONGC men dug into their large reserves of stamina and experience to beat local favourites IOB 3-2 in a pulsating men’s final at the National Club Volleyball Championship at the Corporation grounds here on Sunday. ONGC won 25-20, 19-25, 21-25, 25-16, 15-12.
Mandeep, Lalit and Subba Rao formed the wall of ONGC and gave their side a good start, besides helping their team level the scores. IOB’s serving was at times poor, but Ukkarapandian’s smashes and placings made up for their shortcoming. Gurchand, Navjit and Ranjit were the other impressive performers for ONGC. ONGC won the first set comfortably but was found wanting in the second. With the capacity crowd rooting for IOB, the Chennai team won the next two sets with their aggressive display.
When the fourth set began, the majority of the players from both the sides looked mentally and physically exhausted. Plus the crowd pressure and expecations put pressure on IOB.
ONGC capatalised on this with a calm and steady approach to win the next two sets and take the crown. ONGC got a cash award of `2 lakh.
In an engrossing women’s final, KSEB defeated Southern Railway 25-18, 25-20, 20-25, 25-22. KSEB on the strength of their returns and passing won the first two sets. However, they lost the third to a charged-up Railway, who blocked and boosted better than the Kerala side, and their overall court coverage was better. In the neck and neck fourth set, Southern Railway took a three point lead (20-17) only to fritter away the advantage. KSEB capitalised on error-prone Railway to take the set and match. KSEB become richer by `1 lakh.
Individual awards: Men: (All `5000): Best Attacker: Naveen Raja Jacob (IOB); Best All-Rounder: Ankit Choudhary (W Railway). Best Setter: Ranjit Singh (ONGC, Dehradun). Best Blocker: GR Vaishnav (IOB). Best Libero: Kiran Philip (BPCL, Kochi); Women: (All `5000): Promising Player: Sindhuja (St Joseph’s CoE). Best All-Rounder: Pooja Rani (Mayor’s Club, Hyderabad); Best Setter: Shanty Elias (S Railway). Best Blocker: Tiji Raju (KSEB). Best Libero: D Yogavathi (S Railway).
Siddarth Bags Crown
Siddarth Rao of India Pistons defeated Gautam Venkatramani also of India Pistons 3-1 in the Chennai Super Kings Super Cup snooker tournament. State champion Varun Kumar gave away the prizes.
Result: Cricket: Semifinal: Infosys 127 in 19.5 overs (B Sathish 38, Karthik Balasubramaniam 25, PS Raghavan 5/17) lost to The Hindu 128 for 2 in 16.5 overs (C M Srikanth 44, M Balaji 46 no); MoM: PS Raghavan.