For his blistering performance against Kochi Blue Spikers in a 3-2 (15-13, 10-15, 15-13, 15-6, 13-15) win in Match 11 of the RuPay Prime Volleyball League Powered by A23 Season 2, Hyderabad Black Hawks’ Hemanth P was named the RuPay Player of the Match.

For a team that has mostly relied on their captain Guru Prasanth for points, Hemanth’s return of 17 points - the most by any player involved in the game - will be a welcome boost, to say the very least.

In all, the 22-year-old outside hitter delivered an all-round performance as 11 out of his 17 points were accumulated from the attack. One came from blocking while five points were tallied from service. In fact, the lanky hitter had an efficiency of 33.33 percent during his launches as he made just two errors in the department.

It took Hemanth some time to get into the game. He scored his first point midway through the first set. As it turns out, he upped the ante in the fourth round where he went on to hit spike after spike and ace after ace.

In all fairness, the 15-6 win in the fourth set was all down to Hemanth’s brilliance. After having hit two spikes earlier in the round, the 22-year-old hit five aces in a row to take the score from 8-6 to 15-6.

The trend continued even in the fifth set as thanks to his effort, Hyderabad managed to give Kochi Blue Spikers a tough fight. Now, it’s one thing that they did lose the final set, but it must be noted that the game was already won.