Hyderabad Black Hawks captain Guru Prasanth was rightly adjudged as the Player of the Match following his team’s 3-2 (13-15, 15-9, 15-14, 15-11, 10-15) win over Ahmedabad Defenders in Match 3 of RuPay Prime Volleyball League Powered by A23 Season 2 at the Koramangala Indoor Stadium in Bengaluru on Monday, February 6.

The Black Hawks made a stuttering start to the first set after a series of unforced errors which allowed Ahmedabad Defenders to take an early lead. Despite losing the early momentum, however, the team from Telangana showed grit and went on to win the next three sets.

Meanwhile Prasanth, a former Under-21 national player, was key to every positive move his team made to beat last season’s finalists. For someone who started his career as a blocker, a return of 15 attack points was commendable at its very best.

In fact, the skipper attempted just two blocks and was successful on one occasion. The previous season’s Emerging Player of the Season led his team from the front and not only finished the game with an efficiency of 22.73 but also ended up gathering the most points (16) across both teams. Interestingly enough, he was only one of the two players alongside Ahmedabad Defenders’ Santhosh (11 points) to breach the 10-point mark.

In attack, the 22-year-old made only four errors while being involved in a total of 32 moves.

While the Black Hawks did lose the final set, the game was already won and it is safe to assume that if not for Guru Prasanth, his team would have struggled for points.

Overall, Guru put on an exemplary display to show his team is certainly not lacking a leader and for the second season running, he is duly expected to be in the running for an individual award this year as well.