The Policemen scored a comfortable 25-17, 25-19, 25-20 win over lucky entrants Postal in the day’s first match to grab two points. Later, the Sappers showed no mercy in their 25-17, 25-21, 25-11 thumping of Jindal Steel Works.
Riding on a power show from Ayyappan and Prince in the first set, MEG raced to a 19-12 lead. Despite a couple of good smashes from JSW’s star spiker Vishwanath, who looked far from lethal, the Sappers took a 1-0 lead.
Pradeep Kumar and Laxmisha gave JSW an 8-3 lead in the second set before MEG’s spikers, marshalled to perfection by veteran setter Surendran, levelled scores at 15-15. Surendran continued to set up good plays near the net and occasionally found flaws in the JSW defence with his drops to extend the Sappers’ lead.
In the third set, Sachin and Vignesh powered MEG to a 13-5 lead. JSW’s Vishwanath finally found his groove with four thundering smashes, but a poor display from the JSW blockers and a sterling performance from Ayyappan guided MEG to their win.