Kolkata Thunderbolts’ Vinit Kumar was rightly named the RuPay Player of the Match following his team’s 4-1 (15-12, 15-9, 15-14, 15-13, 10-15) win over Chennai Biltz on Monday, February 27.

Vinit, a 32-year-old opposite spiker, was one of the only two players alongside Chennai’s Raman Kumar who accumulated points in double figures. By the end of the match, his tally read 15 points - 13 of which came in the attack and two via blocking.

From a broader look, Vinit’s return of 15 points may not look like an extraordinary achievement, but one must remember that he ended as his team’s highest scorer despite not playing the final set, meaning that those 15 points were gathered from just four sets.

Interestingly enough, it was Vinit’s spike that opened the scoring for his team in the first set. Thanks to a brilliant attacking instinct and an equally vigilant sight in defence, he accumulated four points from the opening set alone. The second round, on the other hand, was even better as this time, he tallied five points. This meant nine of his 15 points were collected from the first two sets alone.

Furthermore, the 32-year-old veteran was extremely clinical in his spikes as he made just two errors to finish with an efficiency of 45.83 percent. In blocking, his figure was a perfect 100 percent as he amassed two points from as many attempts.

It was an easy outing for Kolkata Thunderbolts altogether as Chennai Blitz failed to put up any kind of fight. However, Kolkata’s upcoming game against Ahmedabad Defenders will be far a cakewalk as this time, the victor will win the bragging rights of finishing at the top of the league standings.