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Railways storm into two finals

Special Correspondent

— Photo: K.R. Deepak

SMASHING SHOT: Railways’ Sreekanth tries to smash the ball past Haryana players.

VISAKHAPATNAM: Railways, which claimed a National double two years ago, is hoping to repeat the same this year in the 57th edition of the championships at the Port indoor stadium here on Sunday.

Railways men and women teams accounted for the holders, Haryana men and Kerala women, in the semifinals on Saturday.

Railways men’s team, not even in the top four last year, was involved in an exhilarating fight with holder Haryana. Haryana despite its star international player Sanjay Kumar joining the team for this match lost to the Railways.

However Railways’s women’s team, runner-up last year, did not find any difficulty in beating a young Kerala side though it dropped a set.

In the final, Railways women will meet West Bengal, which breezed past Karnataka 3-0 in the other semifinal.

The best show

The Railways-Haryana match should be rated as the best witnessed so far, as neither team let go an opportunity to score. Particularly during the third and fourth sets, the match witnessed powerful smashes, good blocks, and players diving and retrieving the smashes or drops from a few inches from the floor.

The presence of Sanjay Kumar made a lot of difference for Haryana as it helped the team to win the first set a 25-22, maintaining the lead from 19-18. Railways came into perfect groove in the second and won it 25-19.

The 1-1 set score made both teams go all out in the third and after an initial 7-4 lead Haryana found the going tough as Railways.

The lead changed with every point as Sube Singh and Sanjay Kumar along with Dinesh Kumar Singh and Raghuveer Singh on the Haryana side came up with telling smashes which received equal response from Srikanth and G. Pradeep.

The exciting set ended in extra points at 30-28 in Haryana favour after a Railway block fell in its own court.

The fourth set was only a little bit less furious. Railways trailed 3-6 and after equalising at nine, Srikanth along with Pradeep, Kapil Dev and Vijesh, sent powerful smashes and as Haryana threatened to catch up with Railways during the last few points, Nivjesh came up with two telling smashes and Pradeep closed the set with another fine smash at 25-21.

Railways led throughout the decider and in spite of being tied at nine, 10 and 11 due to service faults on both sides, it gained lead due to defensive lapse and went on to win the set and match.

In the women’s section, Kerala and Railways met in the semifinals as the former had to face lower down the order in the quarterfinal line-up after it lost to AP in the league.

It had only two players that played in the last national and faced a tough time against an experienced Railway team. Railways won 25-22, 20-25, 25-18, 25-16.

Earlier, West Bengal beat Karnataka 25-19, 25-23, 25-13.

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