Day 4 of Pro Volleyball League 2019 saw Calicut Heroes register an astonishing 15-10, 12-15, 15-13, 14-15, 15-9 win upon U Mumba Volley at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium on Tuesday.
Star performers of the day
Ajith Lal C was the star performer for Calicut Heroes, who played the lead role with 16 points (15 spikes, 1 block).  Dipesh Kumar Sinha stood out for U Mumba Volley with 11 points(7 spikes, 3 blocks and 1 serve). Saqlain Tariq was declared the player of the match.
Calicut Heroes players celebrate after earning a point against U Mumba Volley. Source: english.manoramaonline
Pro Volleyball League 2019: Calicut Heroes vs U Mumba Volley
Post winning the toss, U Mumba Volley chose to serve and got two quick points. Calicut got the pace soon with two consecutive spikes from Lal. At the technical time out (TTO), Calicut drove U Mumba by only one point at 8-7.
At 11-8, Calicut required a Super Point. A flawlessly executed deception ending with a spike from Lal got them the reward point. Be that as it may, things changed when Lal made a two-pointer with Super Point win.
Here is the moment of the day for yesterday’s nailbiter of a match. What a rally this was!#ThrillKaCall #RuPayPVL #Chembada #Mumboys@CalicutHeroes @UMumbaVolley @RuPay_npci @SPNSportsIndia @SonyLIV pic.twitter.com/GzaCT7wqMr
— Pro Volleyball (@ProVolleyballIN) February 6, 2019
U Mumba made a two-point recovery to 10-14, owing to errors by Iluoni Ngampourou and Jerome Vinith, but a spike from Calicut skipper Vinith closed the set in their favour at 15-10.
Both the groups began carefully in the second half, countering each other’s moves and winning on a couple of unforced mistakes. At 5-6, U Mumba required a Super Point which they won with an inch-ideal block by Saqlain Tariq to give his group a 7-6 lead.
Riding on this new energy, they won six successive chances, extending the lead to 12-6. Calicut endeavoured to shut the gap moving down to 12-14 yet U Mumba balanced with a Tomislav Coskovic spike at 15-12.
Clash of the Titans
The match then turned into a clash of equivalents. At 6-6, U Mumba stepped up two back to back spikes Saqlain Tariq and Del Bianco heading into the TTO at 8-6. At 7-8, U Mumba required a Super Point, however, a rock-solid block at the net by Karthik A won Calicut the point and lead at 9-8. U Mumba made a rebound with a spike and serve from Prince to take a noteworthy lead at 10-9.
Driving 7-3 in fourth, Calicut made a bunch of mistakes permitting U Mumba to slither back in the set. To press into a leading position, Calicut called for a Super Point at 9-8, yet U Mumba captain Sinha accompanied an amazing block to take his group to 10-9. At 14-14, Calicut required one point to win the match while U Mumba required one to remain alive and inspired it to take the match to a decider.
Decider Game
The decider saw both the groups level at 6-6. Calicut required a Super Point at 7-6 and changed over with Vinith’s spike. Karthik then aced a Super Serve to expand the lead to 11-6 for Calicut. This was unreasonably steep for U Mumba as the set finished with h mistake from Pankaj Sharma and the match 3-2 for Calicut Heroes.
Upcoming Match on Wednesday: Kochi Blue Spikers v Ahmedabad Defenders at 7 PM.
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