BENGALURU: If their upset victory over South Korea was a nail-biting five-setter, this one was an exhibition of dominance. Technically, India’s 3-0 victory over Chinese Taipei in the Asian Games Round of 16 too is an upset — the latter is ranked thirty places above the team in blue. However, a complete stranger to the sport, in attendance at the China Textile City Sports Centre Gymnasium at Hangzhou on Friday, would not have been able to guess who the superior-ranked team was.
Of course, rankings are not an accurate measure of the quality of a team like India, where the game and opportunities to play have stagnated in recent years due to factional fights within the Volleyball Federation of India. However, Chinese Taipei did still finish sixth in the Asian Men’s Volleyball Championships in August, where India finished 11th out of twelve teams. It is clear that the team has come leaps and bounds thanks to training and playing together for a month.
On Wednesday, India looked a class apart in certain spells, especially dominating at the net. Ashwal Rai alone successfully executed five blocks while the entire Chinese Taipei team just managed seven. The likes of Amit, Erin Varghese and Vineet Kumar, who had all excelled against Korea, continued their good form here as well.
It was Chinese Taipei who took the first point of the game and they dominated the opening exchanges of the first set. India soon found themselves down 6-10 but a flurry of points later, they had clawed the scores back to 9-10. Chinese Taipei again threatened to break away, and at 20-15, looked like they were going to take the opening set. But it was here that India displayed the character that was on show in abundance against South Korea. They fought back and restored parity at 21-21 before taking the set 25-22. A spell of ten points against the opponent’s two at such a crucial point of the game is no mean feat!
The second and third set, though much more straightforward, were not without tense moments. In both sets, India raced to early leads before allowing Chinese Taipei to claw back into the game. But here too, they showed composure and maturity at just the right time and did not allow their opponents to seize the initiative. The two sets finished 25-22 and 25-21 respectively.
The character displayed by the team is something that the former captain, and one of the few veterans in a young team, Mohan Ukkrapandian is happy with. “We learnt a lot from the match against South Korea and recognised that we had mistakes. We tried to rectify them in this match,” he told this daily. “That helped us. The Korea game was full of ups and downs, but this one, we won in straight sets.”
India will now play their quarterfinal against a formidable opponent — Japan ranked fifth in the world. Incidentally, it was with a loss to Japan in the Round of 16 that India exited the last edition of the Asian Games. Ukkrapandian, though, says that neither he nor his younger teammates are fazed. “We are all looking forward to that game. We came here to do something and we will try to win that game as well.”
