With Indian players Somanath and Imtyaz in their ranks, SWR held the upper hand but CIL’s Panindra and Jagadish gave away nothing in the hard-fought match under windy conditions.
Skipper Somanath and Christy looked in fine nick as helped their side to an early 8-2 lead in the first set. CIL narrowed down the deficit to 11-15 but spurred by a string of powerful smashes from Imtyaz, SWR clinched the first set.
The Jagadish-Panindra spiker duo dominated the frontline with smashes and delicate drops to help CIL to a 20-11 lead in the second set. Despite levelling the scores at 21-21, SWR could not retain their momentum as CIL took the second set.
In the third set, SWR jumped to a 11-3 lead but Jagadish helped tie the scores at 21-21, before SWR went on to take the set. Somanath and Christy took complete control in the fourth set to power SWR to their fourth consecutive win.
Other results: Men: MEG bt SAI 25-22, 25-21, 25-14; Jindal bt HMT 25-23, 25-20, 25-22; KSP bt Jindal 25-21, 32-30, 25-23.
Women: KSP bt Spikers 25-7, 25-10, 25-10; Spikers bt Vidyanagar School 19-25, 25-21, 25-20, 14-25, 15-8.
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