Ahmedabad Defenders’ Nandagopal Subramaniyam, for his breathtaking display against Kochi Blue Spikers in a 3-2 (15-5, 11-15, 9-15, 15-12, 15-14) win, was named the RuPay Player of the Match.
In a match that could have gone either way, Nandagopal outscored everyone to finish with 14 points; the most by any player involved in this game. Nine of those 14 points were accumulated in the attack, three came from blocks while two were tallied via serves.
Interestingly enough, the 21-year-old was duly supported by experienced campaigners like Angamuthu Ramaswamy and LM Manoj throughout the game. By the end, as many as three Ahmedabad players finished with at least 10 individual points which goes on to show the depth in their ranks.
As for Nandagopal, his influence was made evident in the first set itself. The 21-year-old started the proceedings with a drop and backed it up with a brilliant spike. All this was eventually accompanied by a Super Serve which put his team in a comfortable spot in the opening set.
Nandagopal’s authority was rather limited in the subsequent sets, but so was his entire team’s. However, the 21-year-old looked his usual self in the final set, scoring four important points. In fact, it was his spike that marked the comeback for S Dakshinamoorthy’s side as they came from 2-6 down to win the set 15-14; thus winning the contest.