Calicut Heroes made it two wins in two in Season 2 of RuPay Prime Volleyball League Powered by A23, this time by beating Hyderabad Black Hawks 4-1 (15-14, 15-12, 15-11, 4-15, 15-14) at the Koramangala Indoor Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday, February 11.

The two teams made a competitive start to the game as Hyderabad, despite trailing 2-5 early in the first set, fought back to make it 7-7. But the experienced heads of Calicut Heroes proved too much for Tom Joseph’s side.

Following a string of enforced errors, Hyderabad lost the plot, especially in the second and third set. While they showed incredible domination in the fourth, the battle was already lost as Kishor Kumar’s side claimed another 4-1 win.

Calicut found Guru’s Kryptonite

Calicut Heroes were aware of the threat Guru Prasanth would pose. So to counter the 22-year-old’s deadly spikes, as many as three players would race to produce a block.

That way, the Hyderabad skipper was left with little room to produce a perfect spike. While it wasn’t the perfect approach, it did the trick for Calicut, at least in the opening phase.

Are Hyderabad Black Hawks too reliant on two players?

In all fairness, Hyderabad looked like a two-man team for the most part of the match. For what it’s worth, the team was decent enough in the attack, with Guru Prasanth and Trent O’Dea gathering points at regular intervals, but the fact that they made a whopping 22 errors in the contest highlights the squad’s inexperience.

Judging by the look of things, it is safe to assume that Hyderabad are relying too much on the duo. Tom Joseph has plenty to ponder if they’re to bounce back from successive defeats.

Experience is a truer guide than the words of other

The aforementioned idiom perfectly defines what Hyderabad Black Hawks are going through at the moment. For a team that remains the youngest group of players in the competition, it comes as no surprise that lack of experience is haunting them big time.

This can be understood by the number of errors committed throughout the game. And if we dig deeper, it’ll show that Vignesh Raj made four errors from eight attempted launches, taking his efficiency to -33.33 percent.

On the contrary, the Calicut Heroes conceded only 16 points from unforced errors which goes on to show the difference in quality between the teams.