Experience more than expertise combined with a commendable measure of resilience helped Indian Overseas Bank retain the Daily Thanthi Trophy in the SAIL-Panimalar-P. John memorial all-India volleyball tournament on Sunday at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium.
The intensity of the combat against SDAT in the final cannot be better understood than taking a glimpse of the score-line, 32-34, 25-21, 18-25, 22-25, 15-10.
IOB should count itself lucky to end victorious. So constructive and convincing was the approach of the SDAT in the early phase that it looked as though IOB would be outclassed.
There were periods when SDAT exercised absolute command thanks to the splendid all round display by R. Vignesh.
He was the cynosure of all eyes, it in attack, net block and in receiving. Raghul provided him adequate support.
Seasoned outfit that the IOB is, the players managed to weather the storm with a filament of equanimity.
Expectedly, the star of the IOB squad was Naveeen Raja Jacob whose timely finishes and flashy serves kept the rival players somewhat bemused.
On the whole, IOB’s show was patchy although it did dominate the second and fourth sets after recovering from slender leads built by the SDAT players. Veteran Nadarajan and Shelton Moses were prominent for IOB.
IOB claimed the cash award of Rs.100,000 while SDAT took home Rs. 75,000. Income Tax won the third place and a cash prize of Rs.50000, followed by Kerala Police with Rs 25,000. IT won the third place match 25-19, 22-25, 13-25, 25-18, 15-8.
Dr. N. Sundaradevan, Additional Chief Secretary, Industries Department, S. Machendranathan, Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor, Ministry of Steel, and Narendra, CMD, Indian Overseas Bank gave away the prizes in the presence of W.I. Devaram, President, TNAA, Sakthi Kumar, Director, Panimalar, Ajit Boaz, Boaz Institute, S.Vasudevan, Kals Group of Companies and Chitrapandian, Organising Secretary.
Individual awards: (Rs. 5000 each): Attacker: Naveen Moses Raja (IOB); Blocker: Vaishnav (IOB); Universal: Jerome (SDAT); Libero: Prabhakaran (SDAT); Setter:Kasi ( Income Tax).
