Mumbai Meteors pulled off a stunning 4-1 (14-15, 15-9, 15-12, 15-11, 15-8) victory to put Hyderabad Black Hawks’ playoff fate out of their hands in the RuPay Prime Volleyball League Powered by A23 Season 2.

After a narrow defeat in the opening set, Mumbai upped the ante to such an extent that the total points difference at the end was a whopping 19 points (74 for Mumbai and 55 for Hyderabad).

As for Hyderabad, unforced errors defined their outing the best. Furthermore, the over-reliance on skipper Guru Prasanth was also one of the reasons for their defeat.

Century of points for Guru Prasanth

Guru was at his brutal best against Mumbai. It’s one thing that the result did not go in his favour, but the 22-year-old achieved quite a milestone during the game, becoming the first player to score a century of points in a single PVL season.

Against Mumbai, it seemed he was the only one putting up a fight and was once again unplayable throughout the night. Only if he had better support, Hyderabad might have ended up on the winning side.

Ratheesh defying all odds

Mumbai Meteors libero Ratheesh CK needs a special mention, to say the very least. The 42-year-old was a key performer as his efforts kept Sunny Joseph’s side in the game on several tricky occasions.

Ratheesh showcased extensive agility and apart from the obvious job of receiving, his passes were quite influential too.

Everything went Mumbai’s way

After an early setback in the first set, Mumbai Meteors looked like a different team altogether so much so that they forced the Black Hawks into making a whopping 21 unforced errors. Surprisingly enough, despite coming against a hitter as clinical as Guru, Karthik & co. made 11 blocks. To put things in perspective, the figure was a mere five for Hyderabad.

Towards the end, Hyderabad seemed to have lost the plot entirely and Mumbai made sure they pounced on every given opportunity.