India leap into semis

Indias junior spikers continued to rewrite the history books by their latest display in the world junior volleyball championships in Pune a 3-2 victory over Belgium that took them into the semi-finals.

Indias junior spikers continued to rewrite the history books by their latest display in the world junior volleyball championships in Pune a 3-2 victory over Belgium that took them into the semi-finals for the first time.

Coach MH Kumaran felt that India had the psychological edge over their opponents and had learned from their mistakes made against Argentina. We had beaten this same team in the under-19 championships and were very confident going into the match. We worked hard on strategy and our setter Balwinder had a blinder today, he said. Mandeep Singh,captain of the Indian team,felt that the variations in the Indian armoury played a key role in Indias victory.

We had many different combinations today. We had used the same ones against them earlier,and it worked today as well, he said.

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India began the game poorly and made too many errors,giving away an early lead to the opponents.

This was the first time that the voices of the seven Belgian fans present could be heard over the 3700-odd Indians that had arrived to cheer their team on.

India lost the first set 25-18 but the Belgian celebrations were short-lived as India made a deadly assault in the second set,thanks to some wonderful all-round play by Gurinder Singh. The Indians found their game,the home fans found their voices and soon the hall reverberated with cheers.

India won the second set 25-19 with ease and carried on the momentum into the third set. Gurinders countless attacks,Naveens accurate serves and Navjits consistent blocks helped India on to an easy 25-16 win.

Going the distance

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In the fourth,strong attacks by Kevin Klinkenberg proved to be too hot to handle as the Belgians won it 25-19 to force the match into a tie-breaker. Naveen,the hero at a similar crucial moment against Russia,began the tie-breaker with renewed vigour.

He got his team off to a good start with two crucial spikes and then followed this up with two sharp serves to put India 10-4 ahead in the contest.

Belgium then staged a late comeback in which they won four points in a row and brought the score to 10-8. This was the other time that faint shouts of Go Belgium were heard from the east end of the stadium,but the vociferous Indian crowd drowned them out after Gurinder put the game to bed with a couple of hard smashes. India won the match 15-11 and booked a place in the semi-final against Brazil.

Argentina,who beat Russia 3-0,will take on Cuba,who lost by the same margin to Brazil,in the semi-final.