Jiangmen, China, January 9, 2020 – Australia’s high hopes of advancing to the semi-finals of the AVC Men’s Tokyo Qualification 2020 at the Jiangmen Sports Centre Gymnasium continue when they overpowered India in thrilling four-setter 25-27 25-21 25-21 25-22 in their last preliminary Pool B encounter on Thursday.
Following the Thursday’s win against India, Australia now have 5 points from two wins against one loss to Qatar to surge ahead Korea in the pool. The Koreans, ahead of their last preliminary match against Qatar on Thursday, had 4 points from one win against one loss to Australia. To secure their place in the semi-finals, Korea need a must-win match against Qatar.
In a very crucial match to decide their fate if their high-level performance is good enough to make the next round, Australia came out in full strength against fast-improving India, which also badly needed a win to prove that they are one of the Asia’s strong teams to be reckoned with in the future despite the fact that they have already failed to make it to the semi-finals following two straight losses.
However, India proved the critics wrong as the South Asian Games champions performed superbly in their hard-fought set against the strong Volleyroos, guarded by the powerfully-built 212cm Thomas Edgar, who competed for Australia at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Hard-attacking Jerome Vinith Chrles and Amit Amit came up with seismically powerful display, overcoming the taller blockers with their exceptional attacks to help India take an initial 17-13 lead. Australia fought back mightily with terrific jump serves and sharp shots from Thomas Edgar and Jordan Richards to level 23-23 and 25-25. Jerome put India ahead with his devastating back row attack before Amit Amit fired a powerful mid-court attack which went without returning. India took the closely-contested set 27-25.
Their confidence boosted after the first-set win, India started solidly in the second set, with Amit Amit troubling the rivals with a blistering run of points through his powerful mid-court attacks to lead 8-6. However, the Volleyroos, silver medallists at the last year’s Asian Senior Men’s Championship in Iran, put their acts together.
Thomas Edgar was on target, tearing the Indian defence apart with his mighty attacks filled with power and precision. With their teamwork hugely improved and defence increasingly tightened, Australia clinched the second set 25-21. The rhythm remained with the Volleyroos in the third set as despite putting up a gallant fight, India found Australia a tough nut to crack to go down 21-25.
In the fourth set, India also proved that they are a side packed with talents and their victory at last December’s South Asian Games in Nepal was no fluke. They combined extreme power through Jerome’s fine shots and great serves from Amit Amit. However, the Volleyroos were also superior in every department against the rivals.
With Edgar attacking devastatingly at the net and Samuel Walker and Beau Graham producing solid blocks, Australia shone through their exceptional form to beat the brave Indians 25-22 and match.
India head coach G.E. Sridharan: “Congratulations to Australia. They did very well. Australia is one of the best teams in Asia and my team did a good performance today by fighting to the fourth set. I hope this experience will be good for our future. I’d like to give my best wishes to Australia to go to Tokyo.”
India captain Vinit Kumar: “First of all, congratulations to Australia. I think my team has also done a good job today for playing a tough four-set match with such a strong team. We got a lot of experience from it, which hopefully would be good for us in the future.”
Australia head coach Mark Lebedew: “It was a very difficult match for us today for lots of reasons. One of the reasons, of course is that India played very well, especially in the beginning. They played in a different way that we don’t see very often, causing us some problems particularly with their block. After the second set, we could put more pressure with the serve and then we can take advantage of our size. It’s amazing that we could change the match. We are happy to win as it gave us a chance to continue in the tournament and we’ll wait and see what happens.”
Australia captain Harrison Peacock: “ Happy to take the win, which is crucial for us. India played very well today and it was a difficult time to play early in the morning. But we did that job this morning and now trying to move in as usual.”
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