Bengaluru Torpedoes picked up their third win in a row in the second season of the RuPay Prime Volleyball League powered by A23 after beating the Kochi Blue Spikers 15-14, 15-11, 7-15, 15-12, 14-15 at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium in Hyderabad on Friday. For his tactful performance, Srajan Shetty was named the player of the match.
Bengaluru relied on Srajan’s blocks and Ibin Jose’s attacks to get an early lead. Taking a leaf out of Kolkata Thunderbolts’ guidebook, Erin Varghese started targetting Tsvetelin Tsvetanov from the service line and the strategy worked in the Spikers’ favour.
Kochi did well to keep Tsvetanov quiet. Just when the Spikers appeared to be in control, Sethu TR, with a super serve, showed that Bengaluru will not back down easily.
The Torpedoes struggled to tackle Erin’s relentless attacks. With powerful serves, the Spikers pushed the Torpedoes backward, forcing them to react. But as Alireza Abalooch came to the court, skipper Pankaj Sharma became free to make an impact from the middle.
Srajan and Ibin’s defensive blocks once again brought Bengaluru back to take control of the match. Riding on Erin’s spikes, the Blues found another opening. Abhinav combined with Shubham Chaudhary to put a halt to Tsvetanov while errors from Mujeeb hurt Torpedoes.
Tsvetanov came late to the party but once he did, Kochi’s defensive structure began faltering. With consistent spikes, the Bulgarian tilted the game completely. Srajan continued to become better with blocks and he closed down the game to help Bengaluru Torpedoes register a stunning 3-2 win.
Hyderabad Black Hawks will be up against Chennai Blitz at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium on the fourth day of the Hyderabad leg of the RuPay Prime Volleyball League at 1900 hrs onwards IST on Saturday, 18th February 2023.
The RuPay Prime Volleyball League powered by A23 will be telecast LIVE on Sony Sports Ten 1 (English), Sony Sports Ten 3 (Hindi), Sony Sports Ten 4 (Tamil & Telugu) & Sony Sports Ten 2 (Malayalam) channels in India and will be streamed on Volleyball World TV outside the Indian subcontinent, starting February 4, Saturday.
For all match statistics, click here: https://en.volleyballworld.com/volleyball/competitions/prime-volleyball-league-2023/statistics/
For all match highlights, click here –
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1STqJpGGXYIf4caW6gF-Z0VII468vYGCR
About RuPay Prime Volleyball League
RuPay Prime Volleyball league powered by A23 is India’s only private sports league in India. After successfully completing Season 1 in February 2022, the league is back with Season 2. Season 2 of RuPay Prime Volleyball League is scheduled to take place between 4th February – 5th March 2023. This will also be the first time the league will feature in front of passionate sports fans across Bengaluru, Hyderabad & Kochi. For PVL Season 2, the commercial arm of the global body of Volleyball (Fédération Internationale de Volley Ball, FIVB), Volleyball World has joined hands with PVL coming on board as the International streaming partners in a multiyear association. Sony Sports Network continues to be the host broadcaster & the fans are looking forward to the exciting 31 games to be played in Season 2 of RuPay Prime Volleyball League powered by A23.
About RuPay
RuPay, the flagship product of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) came on board last year as the title sponsor of the Prime Volleyball League and has acquired the title sponsorship rights for three years.
