Hyderabad Black Hawks’ orange army ended the home leg of the RuPay Prime Volleyball League Powered by A23 Season 2 with a narrow 3-2 win (15-13, 14-15, 9-15, 15-10, 15-12) over Bengaluru Torpedoes in Match 20 of the competition.

Riding on a sturdy attack and a near-perfect defence, Hyderabad registered their fourth victory in six games to go level on points with the second-placed Kolkata Thunderbolts.

The topsy-turvy nature of the game saw Hyderabad starting the proceedings with a winning set. Defeats in the next two meant a victory in the next round was an absolute necessity.

Thanks to a series of unforced errors by Bengaluru and Guru Prashant’s absolute dominance, Hyderabad strengthened their position in the points table with a stunning win.

Errors, errors and errors

Unforced errors defined the Hyderabad Black Hawks vs Bengaluru Torpedoes game. Although the attacking instincts of both teams were top-notch, the erratic errors, that could have easily been avoided, made a lot of difference.

Take the second set for instance. Hyderabad, who were leading the round 9-4, threw in the towel as Bengaluru managed to bring themselves to level terms before winning the set 15-14. Throughout the round, either Hyderabad made errors in serving or Bengaluru failed to send the ball to their opponent’s side.

Bengaluru know how to make a comeback

Bengaluru found themselves trailing for the most part of the first three sets. During the second set, back-to-back spikes from the Hyderabad attackers took the score out of their reach. The story did not change in the third round as well, but it was their positive reaction that altered the course of the game.

While we are aware of the story of the second set, we must point out that the team was trailing 2-5 in the third as well. From thereon, Bengaluru went on to win four of the next five points to take the score on level terms. After 8-8, it was all Bengaluru and their willingness to make another comeback.

One-man show

Guru Prashant’s return of 20 points does not strike as any surprise, but what was made evident throughout the game was that the Hyderabad captain duly lacked support.

The likes of Trent O’Dea, John Joseph and Hemanth P did chip in with 10, 7 and 4 points respectively, but the chemistry that Bengaluru had was evidently lacking within the Hyderabad unit.