Sri Lanka beat India at the Asian Youth Volleyball Championship 2014 held yesterday at the Sugathadasa Indoor stadium.
After yesterday’s disappointing defeat against Japan where the hosts lost the game 3 nil, the team today seemed more focused and adamant to beat their immediate neighbours in today’s ranking semi – final.
The Sri Lankan team didn’t get off to a “spiked start” as they would have expected though losing the first set 15 points to 25. The team looked very stiff and in need of a warming up.
The second set wasn’t much of an eye pleaser either for the Sri Lankan support who gathered in decent numbers as the plight was the same as the first set where the locals lost to the same points margin, 15 points to 25. This time the team looked far less stiff but, paid the price for some unsettled behaviour. They needed to gather themselves more effectively which they finally did in the 3rd set where they took the fight on to the Indians, most definitely realizing that they had not much to lose.
Bandara’s men looked very collected and they really played some delightful Volleyball which got the stands erupting and on their feet again, which was lacking for a good 40 minutes before. The Lankan team beat the Indians in a quite amusing score line, 25 points to 15 where, in the previous 2 sets the Indians beat the locals by the same margin.
The game was alive again and a true spark of fighting spirit burst out as the boys from the isle battled out an intense set where no team looked to give way. The final score read 25 points to 23; a nail biting set in deed. This ensured that Sri Lanka had one more set to battle out to qualify to the finals of the ranking stage.
The final set was not too different to the previous. The set went down to the wire where Sri Lanka really showed a true act of fighting spirit where the lay ups were timely and powerfully supported by the dashes which broke the ineffective defence of the Indians. The set which lasted for around 23 minutes finally came to an end and Sri Lanka emerged winners of the match bringing much joy to the fans, family and supporters, eventually winning the game, 15 points to 12.
Sri Lanka will take on Korea today in the Korea for the fifth place play -off at noon. ThePapare.com requests fans to be there to cheer the local boys on as they play for long dormant pride at the National sport of the country.
