Pune, August 07: India created history, entering the semifinals of the men’s Junior Volleyball World Championship for the first time, beating Belgium 3-2 in a keenly contested match at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi on Thursday night.
The hosts started poorly, losing the first set 18-25. The boys seemed tired and short of ideas to begin with. But the first-set loss woke them out of the stupor and they came back strongly in the second set. Apart from cashing in on the opponents’ errors, they placed the ball at the right places, which apparently was a tall order in the initial stages.
It helped India that Belgium, after a fine start, suddenly failed to find the gaps and lost many points in faulty serves. They gave away 32 points as the hosts won the second set 25-19.
In the third set, India started improvising. The powerless lifts and the unplanned passes, visible in the first two sets, diminished and the Indians spotted the gap well, winning it 25-16.
The match would not have rolled into a decider had India not failed to stop a fierce counter-attack by Kevin Klinkenberg.
The Belgian troubled the Indians in the fourth set with his accurate spikes. India were leading the fourth set 11-09 until Belgium won three consecutive points to take a one-point lead. They then maintained the lead and won the set 25-22.
The match went into the decider. Though India started on a wrong note, they quickly recovered to level the score 3-3 before taking a lead.
Pressure was mounting on the visitors and over 3000 spectators made things worse for them with their vocal cheer in crucial moments. India maintained the lead and finished the set 15-11 to move into the semifinal.
Gurinder Singh and Manidurai Naveen were once again the top scorers. Singh scored 26 points while Naveen contributed 20.
“We made several errors while blocking the ball… We will try to minimise them in our semifinal match,” said skipper Mandeep.
Meanwhile, Argentina made their way to the semis from Pool E along with India. They defeated Russia 3-0. India will take on Brazil on Saturday while Argentina will play Cuba.
–Agencies