Hyderabad Black Hawks resumed their RuPay Prime Volleyball League Powered by A23 Season 2 journey with a comprehensive 3-2 (15-13, 10-15, 15-13, 15-6, 13-15) win over Kochi Blue Spikers in the first match of the Hyderabad leg at the GMC Balayogi Indoor Stadium.
Powered by Hemanth P’s roaring performance which was duly backed by his captain Guru Prasanth, the win takes the Black Hawks to the third spot, although only momentarily, in the points table.
After a neck-to-neck battle in the opening stages of the first set, it took Hyderabad two consecutive points to bag the first round. Meanwhile, what defined Hyderabad the best was their sheer dominance in the fourth set.
Hyderabad had looked to rely more on Kochi’s errors in the early part of the fourth set. However, a thunderous spike by Hemanth and an excellent block by Trent O’Dea opened the floodgates as the team went from 7-6 up to win the set 15-6.
Unforced errors made the difference
While Hyderabad and Kochi both looked equally efficient in attack and even in defence, what differentiated the two teams were the unforced errors. To put things in perspective, the Black Hawks made just 10 errors across five sets, and the figure was 21 for Kochi Blue Spikers.
Prasanth, the silent guardian
Hyderabad captain Guru Prasanth has been his side’s best performer this season, but the 22-year-old took the back seat on Wednesday as he allowed Hemanth to do all the talking. Prasanth, however, was responsible for an impressive 12 points, 11 of which came in the attack alone.
Kochi had no answers to Hemanth’s service
Hyderabad’s Hemanth P has gone under the radar for most part of the tournament. On Wednesday, however, the 22-year-old was in the limelight as he gathered 17 points - the most by any player across both teams. Interestingly enough, five of his 17 points came from the launch. If one has to break down his performance, it was in the fourth set that his quality shone the most when his serves took the score from 8-6 to 15-16.