Prime Volley ball League: Calicut Heroes suffers second defeat
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Hyderabad: Yet another defeat for a Kerala side in the Prime Volley Ball League as the Calicut Heroes suffered their second straight defeat at the hands of Ahmedabad Defenders. Calicut yet again faltered at crucial times in the second, fourth and final sets at the GMC Balayogi Stadium here. The final scores (12-15, 15-11, 10-15, 15-12, 15-11)went in favour of Ahmedabad.
The Heroes was determined to win this match after their defeat to Kolkata the other night and began cautiously. Ajithlal and Captain Jerome Vineeth were able to find winners from even acute angles, helping them to win the first set. However, Angamuthu and Shon T.John combined well to seal the second set for them.
Calicut Heroes regained the momentum in the third and won it relatively easily. In the crucial fourth set, Angamuthu showed his calibre yet again when it mattered and took the third straight match in the League to a decider.
The Defenders never allowed the Heroes to come back in the set as they maintained a two point lead till the end. The last-minute effort of Calicut Heroes coach Kishore Kumar by virtue of a super point call also failed to avert the inevitable.
The last two serves by the player of the match Angamuthu was pretty ordinary, but surprisingly, the Calicut first passers faltered to provide the setter and the untimely spikes were easily returned with good spikes from the other side.
Calicut, like their Kochi counterpart, needs to lift their games in the remaining matches to stay in contest for the semifinal. The team is still very much in the competition as they take on the Bengaluru Torpedoes in five days' time.
They got enough time to regroup and hopefully bring back the experience of veteran David Lee to infuse more power into their game. For Ahmedabad, they need another victory today against the Hyderabad Hawks to book a place in the semi-finals.
