India eliminates Brazil with five-set win in Brazil

India played the role of spoiler by upsetting two-defending champions Brazil in a nail-biting five-set thriller that left the home team out of the contention for the medals in the 2011 FIVB Men's Junior World Championship. The Asian team prevailed in the marathon match played at Maracanazinho Gymnasium of Rio de Janeiro by score of 36-34, 22-25, 21-25, 25-17, 16-14. The outcome earned Serbia the second place in Pool F.

Serbia will face unbeaten Russia, first of group E, in the semifinal, with the other duel reuniting winner of Pool E Argentina and second best team of group F, the United States. The matches will be played next Tuesday at Maracanazinho Gymasium.

In the first matches that will determine 5th to 8th places, also at Maracanazinho, the meetings will be Brazil versus Spain and India versus Iran.

Indian outside hitter Christopher John topped the scorers with 23 points, with Katariya Lavmeet and Dhanabalan Selvaprabhu scoring 13 and 11. In the Brazilian side, Lucas Loh (20), Rafael Martins (18) and Ricardo Lucarelli (16) were the most effective players.

Needing the victory to qualify, Brazil started the match in a good rhythm and scored 7-5 with captain Otavio Pinto winning a ball dispute in the net. When Lucarelli blocked Selvaprabhu to score 10-6, Indian head coach M.H. Kumara called a time-out. Step by step, the Indian team recovered, led by John, until tying the set in the 22th point after a wrong spike of Lucarelli. With the teams changing points for a long time, Rafael spiked out to give India the 36-34 win.

Led by Rafael, Brazil scored 4-2 and, with the opposite in the line, managed to improve it to 11-5 with Otavio taking advantage of an Indian wrong reception. The lead improved to 15-7 in the middle of the frame, but India reacted to reduce it 16-14 with G.R. Vaishnav dominating the net. In the end, Brazil scored some points in a row before closing the set with Bernardo Reitz spiking to make 25-22.

India scored the first points of the third partial, but Brazil managed to tie it 11-11 with captain Otavio spiking and assured an 18-15 lead through Rafael. With unstoppable John, the Indian came from behind to reverse 19-18 after a block of Vaishnav. Overcoming the nervousness, Brazilian blocked to score 22-19 and the hosts closed 25-21 with a second ball of setter Vitor Dias.

With John in the lead, the Asian started ahead also the fourth frame, scoring 7-3. With difficulties in playing behind in the scoreboard, Brazil made several mistakes and helped India to go to the second technical timeout with a 16-9 lead after a block of Vaishnav. With the score 18-12 to their favor, India lost John with an ankle injury, but barely felt its main player's  absence. Keeping the lead, the Asian ended the frame 25-17 following a wrong Brazilian serve.

With star Lucarelli back in the court, Brazil started bad the deciding set and allowed India do score 6-3. Playing with passion, the defending champion reacted and tied in the 10th point following a fault of Indian setter Singh Ranjit. After some mistakes of the Brazilian side, India scored 13-11, before winning it 16-14 with a block point.

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Vollyball World Cup - Argentina defeated India 3-1

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 5 – Youth and Junior world top-ranked Argentina picked up the first win of Pool B at the second round of FIVB Men´s Junior World Championship in Rio de Janeiro as they defeated India 3-1 (25-21, 23-25, 25-16, 25-19) on Friday morning.

With the win, Argentina starts ahead in the group, collecting its first three points. Defending champion Brazil, second placed of Pool A, and Serbia, first in Pool D, will clash later tonight in the closing match of the day.

Argentinean opposite Ivan Castellani topped the scorers with 18 points, while teammate Martin Ramos added 16. Gustavo Vaca and Agustin Ramonda collected 15 and 11 points respectively In the Indian side, middle blocker G.R. Vaishnav scored 15 points, while T.D.Ravikumar and Selvaprabhu Dhanabalan each had 11 tallies.

 

India took the control of the first points of the match and, with opposite Dhanabalan Selvaprabhu spiking from the backcourt, achieved a 7-5 lead. With captain Juan Ignacio Finoli blocking and Castellani spiking, the Argentinean reversed to 10-9. The same Castellani scored to give the South American a safe lead in the second technical timeout (16-13) and to close the set (25-21).

Argentina started the second frame ahead, but India managed to assume the lead 11-10 with outside hitter T. D. Ravikumar spiking against the block. With Federico Franetovich blocking, Argentina took the lead 14-13, but India reacted again and scored 18-17 with Vaishnav in the net. Keeping ahead until the end, the Asian closed the set 25-23 with Vaishnav spiking in the middle.

The third set was completely dominated by the Argentineans, who scored 10-3 in the beginning. With Ramos, the South American side achieved a 16-8 lead in the second technical timeout. In the end, Ramos spiked again to confirm the South American win 25-16.

Led by setter Finoli, the Argentinean kept the good level in the fourth frame and led 10-6, forcing India's head coach M. H. Kumara to call for a timeout. Argentina was able to manage the distance for its s side and closed the match with Ramos blocking to score a 25-19 win.

Argentina will be back on court this Saturday, at 18:30, to face Brazil, while the Indian will play against Serbia at 12:30

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India beats Egypt and advances for the second round

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 3 – Seventh seeded in Youth and Junior world ranking, India clinched the second spot of Pool C in the second round of FIVB Men´s Junior World Championship 2011. The Asian assured their qualification by defeating Egypt in straight sets (25-17, 25-19, 25-18) on Wednesday morning at Maracanãzinho Gymnasium, in Rio de Janeiro. 

With the win, India has now six points and catches leader Russia, who will play later today against pointless Germany. Egypt scored three points. First placed team of the pool will keep fighting for gold medal and will join Group E in the second round, as well as the second placed, which will play in Pool F. Third and fourth places will join Groups G and H respectively and will try to finish ninth place, playing at Caio Martins Gymnasium, in Niteroi.

T.D. Ravikumar scored 11 points in Indian win

India's opposite Dhanabalan Selvaprabhu topped the scorers with 15 points, followed by teammate G.R. Vaishnav, who scored 13, six of them in impressive blocks. For the Egyptian side, opposite Eslam El Hassan had 11 points.

Egypt started the match better and scored 11-8 taking advantage of an Asian mistake. However, with eight points in a row – three of them in blocks of Vaishnav -, the Indian surpassed the African scoring 16-11. The lead increased to 21-13 after a serve point of Selvaprabhu and the set was closed 25-17 to India in a serve mistake of the Egyptian.

Indian domination remained in the beginning of the second frame and the Asian assured an 8-5 lead in the first technical timeout. With four blocks in a row and a counter attack converted by Selvaprabhu, India quickly managed to improve it to 13-5. Keeping a good difference on its favor and taking advantage of the rival´s mistakes, India made 25-19 with a serve error of Egypt. 

Even with many changes, including the substitution of captain and opposite Moustafa Idris, Egypt was not able to react in the third set. The African team was completely dominated by India, which took a commanding 11-7 lead with captain Singh Navjit's actions.  Keeping the control of the match, the Asian ended it 25-18 with a another mistake of the Africans.  

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India defeats Germany in the opening match of the FIVB Men’s Junior Championship

India 3, Germany 1

The FIVB Men’s Junior Championship started on the 1^st of August with Brazil playing host to the tournament this time around. The Maracanazinho Gymnasium in Rio de Janeiro saw the Indians compete with the Germans in Pool C.

The opening match of the tournament went on to four sets at the end of which the Indians were celebrating their first win in the tournament. The first set of the game went in favour of the Germans but the Indians rebounded while taking the second one. The third set saw both the teams go in for the kill and no one was sure where the tables would turn until the very end and the Indians bagged a win. The Germans could not take the match to a decisive fifth set as the Indians sealed the deal on the game by winning the match at the following final set scores: 19-25, 25-21, 25-23 and 25-20.

The Indian head coach, M. H. Kumara, made the following comments at the end of the match while addressing the press conference: “This is the second time we play against Germany in a Junior World Championship. In the first, we lost 3-0 in 2003. We knew that blocking was their best weapon and we had to play very fast to overcome it.”

On the other hand, the German head coach, Stewart Bernard, expressed himself in the following words: “India played very well. We started the match well and had a good performance in the second set, but we made mistakes in the most important moments.”

The start of the first set of the game was tight as both teams were determined to lead the score board. However, it was the German team that eventually got the advantage with them at 13-10 and was able to extend it until 16-11. Despite the fact that the Indians tried to close in the gap, they could not stop the Germans from bagging the first set of the game at 25-19.

The Indians were able to get themselves in a leading position at 15-9 in the second set of the game largely because of German errors. As the game progressed, the Germans improved their performance but by that time the Indians were striding towards a win at 25-21.

The start of the third set was in favour of the Asian team but the Germans took control in the middle before giving the lead away to the Indians in the final stages. As a result, the Subcontinent was able to bag the third set at 25-23.

India stayed dominant for the most part in the fourth set and kept the lead until they had secured what became the final set of the game at 25-20.

Even though his team lost the match, the German player Simon Hirsch was able to tally the highest number of points for both teams by scoring 31 of them. The Indian player that got the nearest to that mark was Dhanabalan Selvaprabhu, who registered 17 points for his team.   

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