Seoul, Korea, August 22, 2019 – India produced a magnificent come-from-behind 3-2 (25-27 25-13 28-30 25-10 15-5) win against Sri Lanka in their 9th-12th playoffs in Pool H at the 20th Asian Senior Women’s Volleyball Championship at Jamsil Students’ Gymnasium on Thursday.
It was a close battle in the first set, with leads changing hands for several times. As Sri Lanka had powerful attacks and smart plays, India relied mostly on their good defence and hard attacks from Perera K.T. Wasana. At both sides reached 25-25, Sri Lanka held their nerves to win two straight points for the 27-25 win.
In the second set, the match started off with a few mistakes of Sri Lanka and India seized an opportunity to lead 6-3. With Jayathunga’s clever tip, the Sri Lankans soon returned to their pace. However, their good show came too late when India came up in full force to easily won the set 25-13.
India’s strong basic skills and steadiness in plays without mistakes played a main role as well in the third set. India led from start and were leading at halfway 14-12. After that, both sides did their best to win the set, but Sri Lanka still played cool under pressure to win the hotly-contested set 30-28.
Trailing 1-2, India turned things around and came back much stronger, thanks to Nirmala’s sharp spikes and blocks and Anju’s fast attacks, to capture the fourth and the decider 25-10 and 15-5.
India head coach Vaishali Phadtare said, “I think in the beginning, our libero and defense was not in the best condition thus went all the way to the fifth set. If we did as well as we normally do, I think we would have gone to the third set and won. The opponents’ side block was not that good and we aimed for that more in the second set.
Nirmala, a key player of India, said, “We were a little flattered in attacks so we tried to make sure to focus on our defense more. Some might think that I acted as one of the key players today with an immense amount of power, but actually, all I know is that I am vegetarian so I guess it comes naturally from within.”
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